Coin-kun Mayday!
by c'estquatre
Summary: That just had to be the day I decided to take the other path home...
1. Coin-kun Mayday!

-Zouken made a sandwich and you died.

That's right, a worm sandwich.

* * *

That just had to be the day I decided to take the other path home.  
Whether it was because I happened to trip over one of the poles that Saegusa-san left lying around, or whether I just happened to be mindless and missed my crossing is still unclear to me, but who can ever blame Saegusa-san when she's just so adorable.  
On the side of the road, flanked by the gigantic arches that seem to stretch into the sky, I could see the stairs of Ryuudouji. It was an annual sight, one that usually occurs during New Year's Eve or thereabouts, so seeing it naked of all the ornaments that the monks put all their effort into decorating and which ultimately end up beautifying the entrance felt slightly strange.  
Thinking 'geez, these gates might need a new coat of paint,' I continued on my detour, walking away from those 'sacred,' gates, but right then, I happened to spot something that had been left sitting on the side of the road.  
The glistening that also blinded me caught my magpie attention so I looked around to make sure that no one was watching me, and then retrieved the rather light cardboard box.

As I happened to be the one who picked it up, it's definitely mine now.  
After I finally actually got home, wondered how I would use this glistening thing that I had found to knit myself a nice jumper. Of course, it would seem quite gaudy at first, but the colours completely matched this outfit that my mother had bought for me a few weeks ago.  
After a few minutes of pondering I took a bath to the wash the dirt that had been caked onto my body. I think that I must have sighed repeatedly; falling over a pole in the middle of winter isn't fun at all.  
Oh, it's the middle of winter isn't it… then maybe I won't be able to wear my gaudy jumper until next year.  
Thinking about how that was a little bit disappointing, I went to bed without eating dinner.

I don't know if it was from that fall, or this new intense way of teaching from Kuzuki-sensei, as tired as if I have spent the whole day doing P.E and not merely one period where all I happened to do was sit out and everyone else run laps, I collapsed onto my bed.  
I probably need more exercise.  
And with that thought still trying to linger in my head, I fell asleep, immediately.

Then, don't ask me why, but I had an unfitting dream about something that happened only a few days ago.

"Looks like there's no one here that's has enough iron apart from you who is worthy of becoming my Vice-Chairman."  
The classic glasses character in front of me took the piece of fried chicken that I had offered him. Thinking back now, it must have been one of the rare lunch-times that Emiya-Senpai didn't happen to be in the clubroom.  
His eyes seem to plead with me, but they were very embarrassing for the both of us, I think, so I don't want to remember them. Anyway, this conversation was really embarrassing and I would like to try my best to take it out of my mind, so let's leave it at that.

I really didn't want to say anything to him.  
It wasn't that I didn't like him, on the contrary, I like him very much, but I'm the type of person that's merely part of the scenery, but I couldn't exactly ignore him entirely.

In essence I was flushed so I walked off with all the fried chicken that I had prepared for him.

On top of all that, he happens to live in a temple, so it must be very, very rare that he gets to eat meat at all.  
"Ummmm,"  
Damn, my face must be beyond red now…

Even then he just kept looking at me, as if he were puzzled by my actions. Actually thinking about it now it seemed he was more crest-fallen about the protein that was taken away from him than anything else.

"Sorry!"  
Ahhh, I was completely flustered.  
After that, I ran out of the student council room. I wasn't embarrassed or anything, it's just that no one's ever told me that they want me to be Vice-Chairman of anything; I'm not Vice-Chairman material in the first place.  
But for some reason, deep inside of me, there was this glowing feeling, so I have to say that I was happy.

Anyway, after having food made for him taken away and then having a girl rush out of the student council room as if she had just been attacked, he wasn't bitter about me at all.  
As I had thought, he was someone who as beyond broken.  
That person, who would so passionately get worked up by one single person, but is so calm and brilliantly efficient the rest of the time that it made you feel so insignificant is called Ryuudou Issei.  
I would like to say my name for the record, but most people that know me call me Kiri-chan.  
Except for him… the first person who ever wanted something from me.

"…But, what is this?  
Why do I get my own story this time? I don't even have a CG, not even one that was never used like Gai's."  
"…Mmmm, that's right, this time Kiri-chan's the lead isn't she?"  
Ah, I see. Well lucky me.  
-Ha, do you think that I'd just say something as idiotic and carefree as that and let everything else slide? What is this type of story supposed to be? Am I getting a happy ending, or am I getting tragically killed off like the standard, plain girl, you know, the one that the Chaotic Professor ate.  
You know if it's the latter, I'm going to murder you.  
"Heh, the author is sadistic and doing this for monopoly money. Well, you're her Kiri-chan anyway, even if you don't have a character portrait you'll always hold a special part of her heart, most probably because she confused you with some demon."  
…Ah.  
For some odd reason. I feel as if I am about to be thrust into a hell from which I can never return-

* * *

Coin-kun Mayday!

It was in a surprisingly warm crimson evening sun, one that enwraps and just holds you tightly when I stood amongst a crowd watching two girls engage in fisticuffs.  
I'm pretty sure that they didn't hate each other. Girls… we aren't usually that way, rather it's because at this age, we're so unhappy with ourselves that we want to express that unhappiness by hurting someone else, and more or less, that girl we decide to victimize also happens to carry the same magnitude of unhappiness. So we merely exchange blow after blow.  
And here the rest of us are, just watching, too scared to do anything about what is unfolding before us.  
We're still just high school girls, children who think they're grown up, but are the furthest from it.

But I couldn't take it anymore.  
Not because I'm special or am like a certain Senpai who believes in breaking up every fight possible and helping both parties.  
I just…

Although now I think about it, in the end, trying to stop the fight just made it a lot worse for me who was on the ground with scrapes and bruises from trying to stop such a childish scuffle, and even if they left, satisfied to have let out their unhappiness on someone, anyone, I'm sure that they were still unhappy.

But whatever, I was relieved.

I'm not a heroine, nor am I a main character so I have no idea why I would do something like that, maybe I was merely like those girls, unhappy with myself so I threw myself into that hoping there was some way that I could get rid of whatever excess emotions I had.

As I was laying there just satisfied that I had finally done something for the first time in my life, a figure stood over me. Just standing there. He definitely was no knight in shining armor. He merely stood their looking at my battered body.  
Without saying a word he lifted me up and helped me hobble to the nurse's room where he began dressing my wounds.

I still don't recall whatever we said to each other, but it was probably more about him sighing.  
It must have been the petty and boring things that high school students talk to each other about; however, I'm sure that slight conversation that I threw away into an oblivion recording was undoubtedly precious at that moment.  
But.  
If what we said that day is truly recorded in oblivion, then it still is deep within my heart.

I think that it would be obvious that our conversation would turn this way; after all, he scolded me, and obviously asked me about why I did the thing that I did.

"I think it's because it hurt. Not me, but watching those two girls fight like that and putting myself in their shoes… Even if I have no right to say so, I have to say that it hurt a lot more than what I am feeling right now. So that's why I tried to break the fight up, does that make any sense at all?"  
"Not at all," he says and smiles wistfully.  
He merely gazes at the gauze that he has applied with a face that seems to say, 'I'll never understand this girl.'  
'I'm sorry, I think that I should have been there to stop them before you got hurt.'  
He says so, trying to seek some kind of forgiveness for a sin he was nowhere near.

Then I realized it.

At that time, the person who wasn't even student chairman yet, who I had thought nothing of, had never been hurt in his life.

The difference between us is more than a chasm, a gap that widens every moment, revealing more and more of the abyss underneath. I'm sure most people who believe that we had nothing in common at all.  
However, that's why I realized it.  
That this person, who would apologize to anyone for something that he could not handle and had no business in handling…  
Well, I who could only think that I was no match for such a person.

The moment I understood that this person was so innocent and so pure that he became someone that I could not let go of, he could only view me as one of the cogs in his system.  
I felt as if the world have completely betrayed me and I obviously resented it.  
Even so, I was roaring with laughter.  
This unfairness, or this emotion welling up inside me, or even the existence of this person who was the only piece of the world that rejected me, yet soothed me with his unbearably honeyed words

So I laughed.  
And I continue laughing today.

* * *

1/

Here is a single house.  
It's not quite on the edge of the residential district, and sadly we don't have a train station in this town; however we do have quite a few buses. If you really want me to tell you, it takes a little less than an hour to get from the residential district to Shinto, the Business District. However, there isn't really a point in going there since we live quite close to the Shopping District in the Residential Area. In fact, I always pass through the shops while going home and buy some taiyakai. Miyama is a rather convenient place to live.  
Yup, that's why this is my home, and the fact that I haven't complained at all since we moved here before I could remember shows us how complacent humans are. I would compare us to some kind of sea cucumber.  
On the nameplate, something rather common in this area but not the more western houses south of Miyama, is '霧島.'  
This reads "Kirishima." I'm not that sure if it's a common or uncommon last name, but it's the one we've been using for a long time, so I guess I don't have any problems with it, uncommon or common.

"It's good to be home."  
Luckily it was a half-day today, and with nothing to do in the town, nor any real friends to go play with I merely just came back home.  
As you probably figured out, it's because I happen to be someone who lives in this house.  
Last name is Kirishima, first name is… Actually, people don't call me by my first name, not even my parents do anymore, they say that it sounds… too royal and obnoxious, so everyone settles with calling me Kiri-chan. My younger brother's name is Kouta, just simply Kouta. I don't even know why my parents chose such a name, and I have never bothered finding out why.  
We're a simple family that does family things, but we don't look much alike at all. Well that is true for the most part, but it doesn't really matter at all since we're a family. It's as simple as that, the four of us, a father, a mother, an elder sister, and a little brother. We're your basic nuclear family.

In most anime's and drama's the kids are either orphans or their parents are almost never home; while that serves the purpose of plot, it doesn't really work that way in real life. Our parents both have jobs, what they exactly are escapes me sometimes, but they are rarely on business trips, and never for months at an end.  
A warm, loving, family; that's how I would like to describe us, there's nothing exactly strange, there's nothing exactly wrong with us… well other than the fact that we exist at all.  
So then the product of such an ordinary family in such an ordinary town like Fuyuki which only had one major fire in the last ten years must be an ordinary girl, with an ordinary brother. In society's view since we have lived blessed lives of almost stagnation, I guess we're accepted and even welcomed and to protect that image… you could say that I'll never end up something like a delinquent… or a Matou Shinji.

So today, like every other, I ended up walking home alone after my final class with Fujimura-sensei.  
And if I had any regret, it would be that I didn't get to buy any taiyaki on the way since I left my wallet at home.

"- This doesn't seem like it's going to end, first the pole, and now forgetting my wallet, it's as if there is some kind of ghost cursing me."

Ever since last week, there have been an outbreak of gas leaks in the town. It seems the city's plumbing needs to be fixed and replaced or something like that, but that doesn't have much to with me at all.  
Languid like some sort of wretched cat I start yawning right outside my house. That's right, I woke up extra early today, well the best thing to do then would be to sleep for a bit and finish and homework, because, you know, I'm just your average high school girl and that's what ordinary high school girls do.

-Which is why…  
Let me say this now. I am the type of person who has lost all of her motivation, zilch, and after having lived more than a decade, I can affirm that I have never truly had a concrete goal before in my life, but like every other ordinary girl, I have seen quite a lot of demons, just not the kind that you usually think about.

"Wel-"  
The left hand holding the kitchen knife hurts more than the right.  
For some odd reason on the right hand is a bruise, some kind of weird marking that I most probably got when I fell yesterday, and on the left, believe it or not, is actually a cut.  
You shouldn't laugh at other people's misfortune, especially when they tell you they were cut by a leaf.  
Leaves are sharp. Do not underestimate leaves. When I was moving to pick up the box, I cut my left hand on the shrubbery behind it, and I think a droplet even fell into to the box. I'll have to check if the yarn is stained and see if I can get rid of it. If I can't, there goes my nice winter jumper.  
However, that cut, which bled quite a bit, has healed to a dull aching throb, one that makes me hope it's not infected underneath that single band aid that I have on right now.  
Whistling slightly because no one else is in the house, my brother's elementary school has a full day today, I turn on the stove and being to cook.

"… Really, mum and dad, I'm starting to wish that you guys didn't always have to actually finish everything in breakfast, so much for making boxed lunches with leftovers."  
Obviously I wouldn't say something like that with them inside the house.  
If they were at home though, I'm sure they would have prepared me a delicious meal. I take them for granted too much.  
But since they are not at home, guess who has to make food for herself, even if the only thing I can make is curry rice, curry udon, and curry with every other ingredient in it.  
"… Wait, didn't mum go shopping yesterday?"  
When I open the fridge, the situation inside is so different from yesterday that I happened to close it and then open it again to feel like an idiot when I saw the exact same thing.  
Almost all the vegetables are gone. What have my parents done with all these ingredients? Are they trying to make a feast for someone?

"Geez, why would you take all the pumpkin slices? I was going to use them for some pumpkin curry."  
Muttering to myself about how pumpkin curry would be the best lunch on a wintery day like this, I continue to make apple curry.  
"That's it, lunch is complete, bonne appetite."  
Enjoying my own trial at French, I head towards my room.

-Buzzz  
"-Ah?"  
I only realized that I could hear a faint buzzing sound once I had climbed to stairs and reached by room.  
-Buzz, crunch cruch, beep, glup.

"…So…"  
Before I can be surprised, I steel my mind.  
The sound from my room is obviously that of someone watching television and eating potato chips.  
"…Heh,"  
So it seems like my brother skipped school.  
Actually, let me talk about why there is a television in my room. A few years ago I reached that stage where I wanted a television in my room. I'm sure everyone reaches that stage in their lives, but the difference with most people and me was that I actually got one. But like everyone who actually ends up getting one… I didn't use it at all. So there is a television in my room that I don't use at all.  
Now onto my brother. While he's only in elementary school, he's starting to show symptoms of being a chuunibyou. Recently, his new fad has been skipping school. He's already skipped once, almost one month ago, so it seems like he felt the need to do it again.

I don't know about other elder sisters, but I'm the type of sister that gives my brother hell when he does something like this.  
Go to school, you might learn something. For trying to skip school when holidays aren't close, you got some guts young man.  
Smiling broadly and without hesitation, I open the door.

-There is something strange there, like some kind of elf munching on pumpkin and watching television while lounging on my bed.

"Eh?"

"-"  
I close the door.  
"What…Whatwhat, what-"  
What, what was that just now-!

"W, wait just a moment!  
Could it be that my brother has hit the level of chuunibyou that he's cosplaying as an elf?  
For some reason I feel like have either defiled or violated by brother's privacy.

"Calm down, calm down calm down calm down calm down…! Alright, you can do this. You are fully prepared as an older sister to talk about things like this with your younger brother. He's not some sort of deviant, he's the same younger brother that you've always had, yea, that's right. That's right, he's obviously at the age where he's trying new things, and these things happen to be something like this. I'm sure I could get advice from people at school who are also into such things.  
Definitely, we're a family, we can make it through this.  
A-And at the end, my brother will definitely get a job, and he won't be a burden to society.  
Alright, just open that do-

...

…...  
Crunch, cruch, cruch. Bite. Chew chew chew.

"Hey, you don't look like my brother at all, you thief!"  
"Hey, woman, do you even get cable here? It's worse than that stuffy Temple."  
The mysterious elf raises its head, not really surprised about anything, he's complaining; after all. I really cannot wrap my head around the fact that this is someone who clearly broke in and is now sitting here, watching my television and eating the pumpkin that should be in my curry, while look so calm.  
"What are you doing in my room?"  
"Oh this a really good part, come in, you should see this too."  
Its eyes are glued onto the television screen and somehow cackling like some witch.  
…Ah.  
For some reason that total disregard for its superior sends my blood to boiling point.

"What are you talking about 'you should see this too?' Being a burglar, you have the audacity to continue to eat my food."  
I'm not a violent person, and I'm hard to anger, but it took my pumpkins so I reach out to grab its robe, thing, something, I don't know how to describe it, but my and hits the sheets it is sitting on.  
"-Ha?"  
I wonder if there exists a sound for when a face goes pale.  
My arm goes completely through this creature before my very eyes.

"Gho-"  
The word ghost just wouldn't come out of my mouth, so I just kept waving my hands around to verify that this person was indeed like a hologram.  
That's definitely the classification of the creature that stole and now is eating another person's pumpkins. And yes, those are definitely pumpkin slices it's hands and that angers me to no end.  
"Oh, I was wondering who it was, but it's just you, master. Can you get me a refill?"  
With a smiling face, it nonchalantly spits out words that just might make me faint.

Okay then, let's just get ahold of the situation here.  
The good news is that this elf-thing is not my brother. My brother has not turned into a deranged cosplayer and is still functioning in society.  
However, the creature that has suddenly appeared in my room is occult.  
That's not strange, nope, that's not strange at all.  
I'm not sure if it's a ghost or a wraith, but since it did nod its head a couple of times saying "I'm a spirit-," it must be some kind of spirit, whatever a spirit is. I didn't even know there were different kinds of spirits.  
However, it I look closely it has pointy ears, and rather strangely coloured hair. It really looks like an elf to me; that is if I didn't see that it had tails and hooves. That would mean it had to be some kind of spirit of an animal. Why else would it need to eat so many pumpkins? So then why is something like that taking the shape of a human, that of a little boy even- if someone asked me that I doubt I could give them an answer that made any sense.

So now, the identity of this definitely mysterious and phantasmal thing in front of the almost clueless me who began this horrible story might still be a mystery, but if there was one thing I was extremely proud of myself for noticing was:

"Those ears, they're kind of like horns right? So you're a talking goat."

If only it had a beard so I could be certain.

"I'm not a not a goat, you idiot Master!"

It might fervently refute that, but I'm pretty sure that's it's a goat. Horns, hooves, sounds like a goat to me.  
It's loud, and it's annoying me, so I throw the remote at the goat's face.

Of course, it ends up going through the goat and hits the wall.

"Hey… that… was… danger….what was I saying again?"  
The goat… wait… goats eat pumpkins?  
Throwing that into the backburner for a second, the goat doesn't even look at me, it seems to really enjoy the programming on television… even if it is re-runs of that stupid Phantas-Moon.  
-I have to say this is kind of bad, kind of bad for real.

"Hey."

"Yes?"  
"Don't yes, me. What are you talking about! I don't know why you came into someone else's house, but if you are a goat ghost, you really should act like one and go away to haunt someone or something. What are you doing here, eating my pumpkin and watching my television, and why is this glass in my hand?"  
It's been a while since I have spoken so harshly.  
Anyway, this is a ghost. I understand that, but I can't accept the fact that it stole all my pumpkin slices, so right now I'm just a little bit angry. It's a little unnatural for me, but think of the pumpkins.

"Hey, I'm trying to watch television here!"  
The goat speaks as if I'm some kind of fly.  
"That's not it. First you come into my house somehow, and you tell me you're a ghost who doesn't have a master. What sort of ghost even has a master? Have you ever watched that Western Cartoon 'Casper?' He certainly doesn't have a master. Well now you're in my room because you wanted to watch some television, and you also snatch up the pumpkin that I was going to use for my pumpkin curry! Really, am I the sort of person that take that and merely just accept it and let you do whatever you wish? I don't even know you!"

He raises an eyebrow,  
"Wow, you're more volatile than I expected. Hell hath no fury like a woman's wrath right? Geez, I have no luck with women."  
"Volatile? And what about you who expects to eat other people's pumpkin slices?"  
As if defying me, as if ignoring me, he raises another pumpkin slice to his lips. It's an action that makes me so angry that I forget that I couldn't touch it and that my hand would go through it.  
But this time, for some reason I am able to grasp its slender wrists.  
"Hey, that hurts you know."  
"-Huh?"  
I think I'm still the one who is more shocked. My left hand can touch its body? Does this mean he is slowly turning me in a ghost?  
Wait… my left hand… was the one that was cut.

Slowly I release my left hand off of it, as he begins to pout while rubbing his wrists together. At least he stopped eating.

"Geez, you don't know how to handle a divine mystery now do you?"  
It rebukes me with words that I have clue about.  
…This is bad.  
This goat thing is so calm, and I'm as pale as a ghost.  
No pun or rhetorical device intended.

"-Hey."

"Really, you've been saying that quite a bit. Geez, can't you just be quiet and let me watch television, and that refill, also that curry you were making, can I have it?"

I open my mouth to shout at it, but there's no point now is there?

"Kuk-!"  
…To be honest I have met nothing as spoilt as this goat ghost.  
If you want to know where I'd rate this thing, it'd be above Matou Shinji and he's called one of the three disasters of Homurahara.

"Y, you, urgh!"  
I am trying to resist the urge to hurt this thing with all my might.  
If I give into this thing's requests there's no knowing what he is going to ask me to do next. Maybe he'll end up asking me to sell this house to him, so he can live here forever, I better be careful with anything that promise and make sure I reject everything he says.  
We'll see whose top goat.

".. Hey, goat."

"I'm not a goat but, yes, what is it, you?"  
"…I have a lot of things to say to you, mostly about property rights, but first stop doing that."  
"Doing what?"  
"I have a name, yet you keep on calling me 'you,' what's worse, you called me 'master.' I don't remember ever becoming master to a spoilt goat like you. Furthermore, I don't remember letting you eat all the food in the house."  
I give it the most intense look that I possibly can.

Unfazed by either my words or my gaze, or perhaps both, the goat continues to stare at me without much emotion,  
"So, you saying you're not my master?"  
Finally, something that got him away from staring at the television.

"Well that's problematic now, isn't it? I'm pretty sure that you were the one that made a contract with me. Well if you aren't my master then…"  
"Magic Circuit, Full count~!"  
A ridiculous sound effect plays along with the incantation and his eyes are redirected to the television. They have regained their rapt attention.  
Geez, what's so interesting about that anyway.  
"You know every episode she just uses Marble Phantasm and defeats the opponent."

-Click, the television is instantly turned off, and he turns to me with the same expression that I had a few minutes ago.  
~Ho, it's scary, I'm rather proud of myself for making such a face, and am currently scared for my life.

"A, Anyway. I'm not your master of anything. I'm just a stranger with no relation, so you should hurry up and get out of here before my parents get back."  
I quickly wave my hand out the window.  
It won't die if I push it out the window, right?

"Ah, so you're going to be playing that card now aren't you?  
It seemed it had calmed down.  
"Alright then, if you don't want to be my master, I guess I can't force you to be my master. I got it, got it, this just a temporary living arrangement, so from now on… I guess you'll be called Kiri-chan."  
"-Wait, wait, wait, wait. I told you to get out. What are you deciding on your own? And what are you talking about living arrangement?"

"Well, from now on I'm going to be living here since I'm considering you a host. Now this room is perfect to be my abode though. The television might be small, but at least it doesn't get any static, and as long as there's food around… I'll be patient."  
After looking around a bit the goat nods to himself, as if he finds this place acceptable.  
That's when I start to raise my eyebrows at him.  
"Really, you don't need to thank me. I am a protective spirit after all. I'll make sure I'm as close to Kiri-chan as I possibly can."  
"What on earth are you talking about? W, who let you stay in my house, much less my room!?"  
"Well, it's your parent's house…"

It seems I have somehow hit a sore point with the goat.  
One point for me. It's quite silent now.  
Without anything to rebuke me with the goat simply stays on the bed silently pouting.  
-What's with this, it's just a normal brat after all.  
So if I give it one two-story push I should be able to get rid of it quite nicely. Shows you to steal my pumpkins.  
"Hey."

"You know that I don't have anywhere to go. Don't leave me out, the wolves will eat me."  
Wait, you mean like that story "The Wolf and Seven Goats?"  
Wait a second, what am I saying, there aren't any wolves in Fuyuki, or anything shaped like a wolf in the first place.  
"Rest assured, there are no wolves in Fuyuki. If you get out now, I'll forgive you for eating my pumpkin slices."  
No I won't. I will take it to my grave and haunt a ghost.

"So… does that mean the contract is broken?"  
"No idea, but if the contract is broken, all the better for me. So pack your bags and start leaving."

Suddenly his eyes turn fearful.  
"B, but, so… so many people will die… I don't want to be the reason for so many deaths!"  
It beats it's hooves on top of my bed as if it is having a tantrum.  
Damn, I think a shiver went up my spine.  
If there's anything that my fellow peers have taught me about a ghost it's that… and this guy is a ghost.

"-Wait, what are you saying? People… dying? That is if I throw you out, a lot of people are going to die? What about me?"  
"Oh you'll be punished the most severely, definitely. My former master ended up with his family massacred, and died under the hull of his rotting ship. It was a nice ship."  
"So that mean…"

"… Well, you said that I should be ghost things right? Like haunting people, so then this would be divine retribution, right?"  
Why does this ghost look so gleeful as it is tilting its head?

"Heh, Heh, Heh."  
Slowly, it turns to its face to view me.

"What is that? Why are you laughing?"  
"Didn't you know? That a few days from now… oh I shouldn't mention it, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, but I will tell you you'll go more or less go splat."  
"Are you really trying to threaten a girl? You know that's low."  
I reach out to grab the goat, but it's quite nimble, as expected of its size.  
As if some kind of wretched hag, it hunches it's back and continues laughing in dry, horrifying tones.

…And that's when I lost it.  
I'm not a tough person, and I give in easily, especially when my life is in danger. Did I mention that I wasn't really good with occult things? Either way, with all these factors against me, it was obvious what my answer would be.  
Take the family and run away to some place, maybe a small town called Misaki. It might take the same time as getting from Tokyo and Kyoto, but it's definitely far way. I heard they have some nice soba stands there.

In the end there is no way that I didn't accept this crazy goat.  
No, I don't plan on listening to its every whim for the rest of eternity even if right now I have just poured him a refill of soft drink. Let's just say I'm biding my time until I find its weakness and bam, out the window it goes.  
That's right, this isn't a defeat, only a temporary withdrawal.

With that said, if there's something I need to know as the landlord.

"-Hey, goat!"

"Kiri-chan, I'm not a goat, so I don't like you calling me that. So if possible, please call me by my name-"  
"I know. So teach me your name. You seem to know my name… did you read my diary?"  
"What? This book of chicken scratching that doesn't make sense?"  
My face has turned madder rose. Wordlessly I snatch the only pink thing in my room back,  
"Well anyway, there's no way that I would know your name."

"Ah, now you mention it-"

Giving a crazy smile, the goat says that its name is Argon Coin.

"…Argon Coin, you say?"  
Well, he looked like an elf so I thought he was from the North Pole, but I guess he really isn't from Japan.  
Thinking about it now, this guy isn't even human to begin with, not that I can talk.

"…So what you think? Breathtaking isn't it?"  
The goat, Argon Coin looks at my face, completely proud of something that he didn't earn.  
"-Hmmm, that's right, it doesn't really fit that much."  
It looks at me as if I am some kind of idiot.  
That type of gesture, even acknowledging that its hands and feet were strange, was not something you attribute to a goat. Goats usually lick things.

-Welp.

Ah, that's it, it's not ghostly enough. That is to say, it sits around watching television and eating my pumpkin slices. It's definitely something that is too human, so I don't really like the name Argon Coin.  
First of all, Fujimura Sensei is my English teacher so I know exactly what it means; argon is an element, a noble gas, and a coin, is a coin. So why would something like this, something that only cares about watching television and eating other people's pumpkin slices, be called something as noble as Argon.  
It should be something a bit more unsophisticated, and simplistic that describes the utter essence of this ghost.  
"Is 'Argon Con' your original name?"  
"Well I've never really been called anything else, so I guess that it is."  
"What? You can't even remember your own name? You're more airheaded than I give you credit for."  
"Like I said, I can't remember."  
… Well a ghost is ghost, and I am me. Everyone has probably already forgotten my first name since it has only been used once. I guess I would use that name if he affirmed that it was his name, the precious one that his mother and father gave him, but since other people just call him that out of convenience…  
Nah, I can't call it Argon Coin just because of that.

They really just don't match up,  
"Coin-kun."  
"-What?"  
"From now on, your name is Coin-kun, because you're like a coin, like a one yen coin that you can never get rid of. That's right, it suits you better than 'Argon Coin,' so for ease, I've decided to call you Coin-kun."

The goat, no, Coin-kun just stands there absent-mindedly.  
"You know, I'm not going to change your name. You're Coin-kun forever, the time of going back to Argon Coin left the moment you decided to stay in this household.  
If it's this guy, it's obvious that he'll say something like "I want to be called Magical Amber," or something like that.  
"Hmph, it's a good name!"

He has a reasonable smile on his face so I guess that means he's happy?  
To confess, he's kind of cute, like a lost puppy when he looks like that.  
Even taking into account the fact that he stole my pumpkin slices, fingerless and toeless hands and feet, I would mind squishing the boy's cheeks that still have the luster of youth that my brother's have lost.

…Should I leave it at that?  
Even for a girl like me who has never read anything involving cross dressing or two males, I have to say I want to dress him up in a dress and then make him up and place him on the shelf with that one china doll that my mother bought me when she went to China.

With a little smile on my face:  
"-Alright, I've never actually done this before."  
I starting opening my drawers looking for that set of makeup that my mother bought for me two years ago, and that I have only used once.

"Wait? Ah, Kiri-chan, what are you looking for?"  
"Nothing really, I guess there are some perverts on the internet that would enjoy looking pictures of an effeminate boy."  
Ah, there it is, taking a lipstick I slowly turn towards Coin-kun.  
"Ah? Kiri-chan, what big gleaming eyes you have."

"All the better to see you, Coin-kun."  
Every step that draws me closer to me is countered one a movement towards the wall, but the wall serves as an absolute barrier. His only option then would be to drop out of the window, my win either way.  
Yes, I don't really mind blackmailing a ghost. I'm not sure he'd even show up in a photograph, but I'm not going to think about that while I have the edge in this relationship.

"Kiri-chan, I'm a very divine, spirit. It would be best to not do such a thing that might sul-"  
"Don't worry about all that, it's all about gaining experience.'  
'Well, experience for me when I manage to have Ryuudou-Senpai in this room.' I add thoughtfully.

"-Hya, whoever this Ryuudou fellow is I already feel bad for him. Having ever encountered such a psychotic woman-!"  
Coin-kun takes my sheets and holds it up to his body feigning vulnerability.  
I was saying it as a joke of course. Yes, it was a joke. You might not believe me, but it was a total joke, although it isn't hard imagining Ryuudou-Senpai in a pink bonnet and, kyaa~  
"Don't make me imagine weird things, you pervert!"  
But he did call me a psychotic woman. I think this is the normal reaction for any woman, so I take offence to that, and because I take offence to that.  
"What are you saying, I'm your master right? That means you are property, unless you're saying that you have some other master that outranks me."  
"Ohaoaoa, I don't know anything that annoying and evil-!"  
Huh, it's puffed out its cheeks and looks rather riled up.  
It seems he really doesn't like this master of his. Maybe, maybe, he or she's as scary as Kuzuki-Sensei?  
Wait that person is anything close to Kuzuki-sensei, then I would definitely be rid of him in an instant. It's hard for me to say, but Kuzuki-sensei even scares me. His way of breathing and walking is too perfect, a level that this guy is nowhere near, and one that surpasses my own.  
"-Well anyway. The internet is quite wide spread these days, so there's a big chance that I'll find your owner if your picture goes onto it."  
I stretch out my left arm and grab Coin-kun's arm.

A surprising feeling of smoothness.  
…Wow, I didn't expect that of all feelings, in fact if I may be so vain, it feels exactly like my own skin. I guess pumpkin must be good for you.

I started this out with only the thought of finding his weakness, and then exploiting what every man fears to obtain utter victory, but I'm starting to feel bad.  
Not for him of course, he stole my pumpkin slices, but if someone were to open the door right now to see this, it might be a dangerous misunderstanding.  
A boy in the corner of the room and a lipstick ready to stain his lips red even when he's refusing; I don't know what it looks like.

"Hey, Nee-san, where did my potato chips go?"  
Saying that,  
-my little brother slams open the door and bursts through, full of indignation.

"-"  
The siblings look at each other as if looking through each other. I assume this is what it looks like when children find their parents in bed with each other.  
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm quite embarrassed, but right now I'm more shocked than embarrassed.  
Divine retribution, he said, would occur if we throw him out…  
Well that Divine retribution has already occurred!  
"Oh, it's Kouta-san, I finished watching all the shows you recommended me!"  
Coin-Kun says that rather in a rather gleeful manner.

"-Kouta, this isn't what you think it is."  
When dealing with an impressionable young mind, you have to establish that fact first.

"….Nee-san, did you "push," Aarrugonu-san down?"  
Oh, my little Kouta has grown up, it almost brings a tear to my eye, and who the hell is Aaruugonu, some kind of dinosaur?  
"Well Nee-san, mother and father did say that you at the age where you needed more space. I guess this is what they meant."

Kouta slowly closes the door and goes down the stairs muttering about how mother and father told him to call them if he saw something.  
That's when, without hesitation, the sound of our phone is picked up.

"Ah, hello, mum? You're busy? I'm sorry mum, but there something that I got to tell you,"  
"Whoah, Kouta it's good that you're finally listening to our parents but this is not the time to be doing something like that."

With a heart going into overdrive and a mind panicking I run through the hallway.

"Yes mum, it is an emergency, you see, Nee-san has…"

"Oh, no, stop that. Not there."

With a bored sounding voice Coin-kun urges on my brother.  
"You brats, you both got some guts!"  
Yelling like that, I steal the phone from my brother who was about to explain what was happening.

"Yes mum. Oh it's just that you'll need to get more groceries on your way back. Kouta bought back some friends and I made pumpkin curry, and some other food, so we're almost out. Yea, kids eat a lot these days, bye."

-Ha.  
For some reason explaining how many friend Kouta brought feels like the least of my problems now.

* * *

2/

Once upon a time I visited the place that my father works. He was a doctor, at least that's what I always write when those elementary school classes asks "what do your parents do."  
Well anyway, I expected to find a scene that you would find in many picture books, that is, people with bandages with their heads and crutches everywhere.  
It is an underestimate to say I was slightly disappointed at the scene I was presented with. Either way, there were two things I remember very clearly about what happened that day.  
The first was the man in the white coat that went up to my father to complain about how a just awoken coma patient had just tried to blind herself.  
I remember my father had a worried look on his face; whether that was because the girl's family was rich or because he was just worried I will never understand.  
I was a bit scared myself. I was about eight years old then, understanding, yet not quite fully understanding, I asked my father as we were leaving why someone would do something like that.  
My father's words were that if a human goes through a traumatic experience at a young age, then her spirit rots away.  
If personality could be considered a skeleton, then all those bones get bent out of shape.  
And since my father isn't a bone-setting-doctor, she grows up with bones that stay bent, and ends up as a person who would even destroy their own sight so she will not need to look upon reality.  
I thought that my father was talking about that girl, but later on I realized that he was talking about me.

It was so obvious that the first moment he took the podium, I could tell.  
He was one of the few children that were never harmed. Hardened perhaps, by a life of hard work in the Temple, but those who live the furthest away from others are the most pristine.  
That, unlike me, he was person who was unable doubt his own decision, for every decision was made without 'him.'

Perhaps it's merely my personality or whatever has happened to me, but the only thing that I ever truly wished for was a peaceful everyday life.  
Much like being claustrophobic, I could not help it if there was tension in the air or stress that undermined my normality.  
Of course you can say that during final exams, the person who was the most stressed out was me, and obviously I never had any fun in during the class field trips, even when I happened to be randomly selected for the committee to plan one.

So it might be embarrassing to say, but I decided to become part of the scenery.  
Because I couldn't stand the glares of other people and their wishes for me, I thought that if no one wished anything of me, I would be okay.  
Everything that I did, I wished to do it for my sake and my sake only. I don't think that my parents were exempt from my heartless attitude.  
Because I had realized, in the end, there was only one person that mattered.  
It doesn't even matter if that person is good or bad.  
It is the first thing you are born with, and the last thing that you acknowledge when you die.

I had accepted that selfish nature since I was a child.  
No, I had embraced that selfish ideal; help others only to benefit yourself, emotionally or physically, the examples go on.  
As this is the basic philosophy for most people, I felt understood by most people. My failing was merely theirs taken to an extreme.  
But that is why I would recognize someone who is world apart from myself.  
In that auditorium, filled with basically the same face, over and over again, that one droning sound on the podium was so unbroken, so pristine, that I could only view it as something distorted beyond belief. Something that was so unbroken that it definitely was more warped than any of us selfish people. You would think anything like that would easily break.

What kind of confrontation was that?  
It was only a couple months ago, we were planning to go Kyoto just before winter break. If you look at my parent's key's you'd notice that they are hung on the matching key chains I bought as a souvenir. Of course, I did so they would love me more.  
Either way, I happened to be randomly selected as the representative for my class. I think the teacher just looked at who did the least amount of things, and chose, and since our school is a private one, every student got go on the trip.  
At first everyone didn't really know what to do, neither did they expect to do much. After all, this was an event that was always organized by the Student Council, which would mean we wouldn't have to do anything, that is until one of the representatives of class 2-A raised a question.  
It was a simple question; one that didn't mean much; however, the fact that she spoke during what was expected would be a student council dominated session spoke volumes.  
And then she started getting more vocal. It's like ivy, right? When you allow it an ounce of ground, it will grow and spread and then take over the entire area, and soon we were split into four factions, those who didn't say a word, those who supported this girl, those of the student council, and the student council chairman.  
…Well, the meeting sure was lively, and there weren't any teachers in there to moderate, but the itinerary hadn't been changed. In fact most of what they were arguing about was rather trivial. The girl understood that she would need to win all the trivial battles ruthlessly and completely before she could start to change any of the major features.  
Half of us were exasperated with her, I think the other half admired her greatly.  
That Red Devil.  
Oh, I never mentioned her name now did I?  
Tohsaka, her name was Tohsaka Rin.  
And in the end everyone was shouting at each other under the guise of civility.  
The only ones who had not talked were just the student council chairman, and as if playing some kind of chicken with him, me. I pretended not to care.  
…Yes, that's how it is.  
The wishes of Tohsaka-Senpai are selfish, like my own. The easiest way to achieve happiness is to become happy yourself and then spread that happiness with other people. Tohsaka Rin was the exemplification of that philosophy, someone who led by example, and me? I'm the person that strives to be happy and hoards it for herself.  
Yes, that's right, I understood and accepted the rules of happiness, like how there were more people than seats known as happiness.  
I just knew the principle, but it's not like I had a way to make sure that I was happy.  
So, in a situation like this, the only thing that I could do was not draw any attention to myself, and merely be part of the scenery as this trip in no way could benefit me.

Even if the action may the same, the impetus can be completely opposite.  
The only thing that was different with him was that unlike me who had completely zoned out of the argument, he was incessantly listening, even if he didn't try to calm anyone down.  
I remember before Tohsaka-Senpai began her final assault that he just looked at me and smiled, perhaps wondering and wishing that I was exactly the same as he was.  
And then Tohsaka-Senpai complained, and said that we should 'skip the temples because they're boring.'

No one said a word.  
I think that everyone, including me agreed that Temples are indeed boring, and no one wants to visit them unless they're having some sort of festival with fireworks.  
I even raised my hand to agree with her, and so did everyone else.

Well, everyone else other than the student council chairman.  
Suddenly, he shot out of his desk, his eyes ablazing for some reason.  
At first I believed he was angry that everyone happened to agree with Tohsaka-Senpai, and he felt it undermined his authority, then I remembered sort of person he was.  
He was actually really scary.  
In fact maybe it was so scary that part of my mind that decided to repress the memory. I think that even Tohsaka-Senpai was wary of him.  
Either way, I'm sure on that day, Tohsaka Rin made a permanent enemy that would oppose her every move.

At that moment I realized why this quiet student council chairman had gotten so worked up.  
I didn't need to listen to what he was arguing about to understand the reason why he was so vehemently against not going to temples.  
At that time, I didn't even know he was the son of the owner of the Ryuudouji, but he wasn't fighting for Temples in general because he lived in one.  
Equal opportunity for all.  
He didn't care that everyone in the room didn't want to go to the Temples, they were only the people in the room. He was the type of person that had to be sure that everyone in the school, bar himself, didn't want to go to the Temples before he crossed it off the itinerary.  
Never being hurt before in his life, he didn't understand what everyone else understood, that there were more people than seats known as happiness.  
"If someone wants to do something, then they should be allowed to do it."  
It doesn't matter if everyone else hates it, as long as that one person is happy because of it, that's enough, the group should suffer for the happiness for one person for that person will in turn suffer for the happiness for the group.  
This was the zero-sum game he played.

From that I understood a bit more.  
Everything that I did was for myself, and to persist in doing things for myself I must hide in plain sight, hide under my twin braids and glasses.  
This guy was on the other spectrum.  
Everyone must be able to attain happiness because happiness exists; there's no such thing as a limited resource.  
I'd hate to tell him what's going to happen to our petroleum in a few decades.  
Make sure everyone can pursue their own happiness, make sure no one is taken advantage of. If everyone has the same starting point and the same support, then we all definitely achieve happiness together.  
He might look like he sighs a lot, but what an optimistic idiot.  
Thus, can I think anything but that something is wrong with his mind, something more wrong than mine or Tohsaka-Senpai's?

"Kiri-chan-, it's morning-"  
I hear a voice that doesn't even contain a bit of tenseness.  
"Wake up, you're definitely going to be late-"  
Even if I get tapped with a very hard hand, I'm never, ever late so this thing must be beyond delusional.  
"This is bad, Kouta-san said that if Kiri-chan didn't wake up he'd eat her mackerel, I guess it's time to up the ante."  
Urgh, I don't want to listen to the words of someone who stayed up most of last night to play games with a certain someone's little brother.  
"Yes- I'm waking up-"  
I feel like there's something wet on my forehead.

"-Ew!"  
At that moment, I shot up as if shocked from a nightmare.  
On the pillow in which my head was resting until just a moment ago is that blue goo that you make with corn starch and liquid glue.  
I don't know if I want to kill it or if I want to kill it.  
"Wh, what are you doing, you brat-!"

"Ah, morning, Kiri-chan!"  
Coin-kun greets me with no energy at all, that's because all his energy is placed on the handheld game he is somehow holding.  
No doubt he is playing one the Phantas-Moon games.  
Maybe it's the fact he's the type of person that doesn't look at your when talking to you… no, it's his mere existence that annoys me and makes my head heart.

"… Hey, aren't you a ghost? Should you really be playing games like that? Wait, a second didn't I tell you not to get involved in my life?"  
"Well you're the one who woke you. You could have swallowed Kouta's science project and kept sleeping."

I want to bash his skull in.  
"Also, I think it's bad if you're late for something; Kiri-chan is a model student after all."  
Hey, you're a ghost, so why do you know what a student is?

"-"  
I look at the clock.  
It's almost eight o'clock… Well like I'm said, I've never late because I always wake up thirty minu-  
…Wait, it's almost eight o'clock!

I shoot out of bed and change instantly change into my uniform much like certain magical girl.

"I don't think you need to do that, Kouta's probably already finished eating your mackerel by now."  
This ghost who out of its own whim latched onto a human and ate all her pumpkin slices has now more or less made it his goal to defend my food.  
…Ah, just how many people will be killed? I'm sure if it's a manageable amount then…

"…I'm going to school, so stay here. On the way home, I'll buy more pumpkin slices, so don't take stuff from the refrigerator by yourself."  
"Yes, whatever make sure you get the organic kind, I'm going to be spending the day in this room okay?"

Completely not caring and even asking me to purchase organic pumpkin slices, the ghost that is currently playing some game sends me off to school.

"-Just made it."  
Without eating breakfast, I bolted to school.  
The winters in Fuyuki are quite warm, but I'm glad that I didn't forget my jacket, with the stress that I'm living with these days…  
Well there's no point in thinking about it while at school.

"Oh- , this is the blessed normality that I haven't felt in so long."  
I clench my right hand into a fist and put some energy into it.  
These last few days as my little brother has been introducing Coin-kun to the splendors of this age's virtual entertainment while I have been thinking about how to get rid of this ghost. That being said, I haven't had any time for anything else.  
So I think it'd be best, at least during the school day that I just go through my daily routine pretending that he doesn't exist.

Everyone stares at me for some reason.  
Oh, it's because I have my hand in some kind of fist.  
Geez, even without him being present, it seems he is still changing my life for the worst. Quickly and embarrassed, I uncurl my fist.  
"—Ha. Won't someone teach me how to get rid of him…?"  
But I don't think anyone in this school other than me who would be good with this type of occult stuff, and when I asked Ryuudou-Senpai,  
"It's best if it exists for people who have it and doesn't for people who don't," he doesn't bring up the issue of becoming Vice-Chairman at all. Has he gotten over that?  
So after inspecting this ghost, there are two things I've discovered.

First of all, it's that it can't survive outside my room, no, actually our house.  
I don't know the reason, but it seems his movements are limited to just our house.  
So it can't go anywhere else, and it just stays in my room.

And second, this ghost is definitely one of poor quality.  
"Feed me."  
Saying things like that, this goat keeps eating the Kirishima household's food.  
"You know, don't you have any prana that you can supply me with or something?"  
What on this earth is prana?  
For that reason, I've wasted three years of birthday money buying Coin-kun things to eat. I couldn't bear to make my brother or parents a part of this and it's mine, so I should take care of it. I think it's mightily chivalrous of myself.

…So for these reasons, not only is my mental situation horrid, but so is my financial situation.  
If I live like this for another week, I'll probably need to get a job in Fancy Store or something like that, and if I do that, it'll be harder to go to school, and then people will think I am some sort of delinquent.  
"This is frustrating. Why am I even doing this for some sort of goat ghost?"  
Even extraordinary things have limits.  
So then this thing surpasses extraordinary.  
The most absurd thing is the fact that I'm becoming more noticeable. It must be because I'm starting to get used to being around a ghost.

"Sigh, why did I need to give it a name?"  
A little bit of regret and self-pity.  
Maybe it's just a feeling I'm having, but ever since I gave it a name, it seems to be following what I say.  
It's really unlike me.  
I'm the type of person who does nothing even if someone is starving in front of me unless he can benefit me in some way, so how did I end up in a situation like this?  
Really, I am truly regretting it.

"Damn, that name was supposed to annoy it."  
That was unsuccessful.  
I should've realized that it wouldn't matter if could watch television.  
"Hmmmph, Coin-kun is too good of a name."

"Yo, Kiri-chan, you called?"  
"That's right, it's too good for a pumpkin slice grubb- Haaaaaaaa!?"

"Haaaaa, is that even Japanese?"

I quickly stand up, shocked.  
Goodbye my halcyon days, the days that I cherished, yet took for granted.  
As I run out of the classroom I think I want to cry.

"C-C-C-"  
On the rooftop I shakily point at Coin-kun.  
In the classroom Coin-kun was definitely there, but the people around me couldn't see a thing.  
No one noticed this strange being that suddenly appeared in the 1-B classroom.

"Geez Kiri-chan, you're pretty embarrassing. Even if you're my temporary master, I don't want you to be treated as some kind of crazy person."  
"Youuuu!"

Who do you think is more embarrassed; you or the girl who grabbed you with her left hand, and ran up the stairs and had to break the lock on this rooftop with you screeched "Let me go- No, not the lipstick again—"

"You can forget about organic pumpkin today, young man."

"Eh, but normal pumpkin makes me sic- Ow, hey that hurt."  
As soon as it started to talk I hit its head with my right hand.  
"Hey-, what are you doing- Kiri-chan, you're a girl right? So violence isn't the answer at all. They say men don't really like violent girls-"  
"Stop it, that's what I should say! As a ghost who appears during the day, and in someone's classroom, don't say something like that! Think for you second, you are a ghost, you aren't meant to exist, you're strange."  
"Well compared to you, I don't think I'm strange at all."  
…Ah, really, this is exhausting.

"…Alright. I got it already. You came here to annoy me, right? You probably finished every game that we had in the house, so you thought 'what's better than a game?' and you obviously thought 'to annoy Kiri-chan,' which is why you're here to give me a nervous breakdown."

"Eh- I was in the middle of a game you know. Since Kiri-chan isn't supplying me with any energy she is the lowest of the low as a master. Usually I wouldn't be your protector even if you begged me and offered me organic pumpkin."

I've done all those things… why does this thing always say a little more than necessary.

"Is that right then? Then hurry up and disappear. I'm not someone that gets into the extraordinary so I don't need protection, especially from someone like you."  
"I can't do that though. Even though Kiri-chan is a temporary one, you're still my master, so I have to successfully serve you, also since I can't get out of Kiri-chan's house, I can't disappear to anywhere."  
"-What about that?"  
"Yes?"  
"Exactly. You're here, but you said you can't come out of the house. So how did you come out to this school?"

"Well, that is because you're here. As long as I'm near Kiri-chan, I can exist. It's definitely a sign that the bond between our blood is getting stronger. Even if there are some better masters in this school, I won't betray you."  
As if reassuring me that it won't abandon me, Coin-kun tries to give me one of those 'you can depend on me,' looks.  
"The bond of our blood, what is it?"

"Hm-, to put it simply, it's the commoner's version of a mystic pass. That's why Kiri-chan can touch me now with both hands."  
"With both hands…?"  
It was only after I heard it that I realized it.  
I was grabbing Coin-kun with my left hand and hitting his head with my bruised one.

"No way…"  
Quickly I let him go.  
"Geez, be a bit more delicate okay?" He methodically brushes his robe.  
"What, what, what, what are you! So you're saying that you'll eventually become concrete?"  
"Yes, but only to you, Kiri-chan."  
"-Don't lie to me this time. I always knew you weren't normal, but just what exactly are you?"  
"Well, you talked about haunting before right? Maybe I'm a vengeful spirit haunting Kiri-chan."  
The goat ghost looks at me with gloomy eyes, and goose bumps start forming up from my back because I know it is more than a possibility.

"Ah, but I'm not at the level where I am able to do something against your life. You see my previous master is working very hard to sustain me, so I don't need to take any energy from Kiri-chan, but if you value your life, please buy lots of organic pumpkin for me."  
This is the first time I've seen Coin-kun laugh darkly.

But, wait.  
I had an idea from before, but he…

"Coin-kun. You know what you are, right?"

"Huh," he looks at me as if I am some kind of idiot.  
"As I thought. When you come to your senses, even though it's true that you were in my room, you still know what you are. You aren't some vengeful spirit that is haunting me. Now how about you tell me what you really are?"  
"Well it's not exactly a secret, but you see Kiri-chan, by my understanding, we might be fighting very soon, so I can't tell exactly tell you what I am."

"Oh, I don't really care about that because it means you should get out of here. As long as I don't have to worry about divine retribution, I'll be okay with the heartbreak. Also you have a master other than me right?"

"Huh? How do you know about my other Master?"

I'm not that stupid, you know.

"So, let's go. If you have an owner, just go back to that person. I'll even give up knitting that nice jumper I had planned if I can get rid of you."  
"Y, You knew?"  
I'm really not that stupid, you know.  
"It's obvious, isn't it? When a ghost appears out of nowhere, what other reason can there be?"  
"Hmmm, it seems that I thought you were the traditional, airheaded shoujo heroine. You're more like a yandere though."  
Saying that Coin-kun slumps his shoulders in resignation.  
…He really was planning to say at my house forever wasn't he?

"Okay, it's decided then. Now tell me where this master of yours is. Just think about it, you'll be more comfortable with that person than a normal person like me."  
I don't care if there are still four hours left of school, it's worth it so, I grab his hand.  
-Then.

"Oooang, I don't want to-! I don't want to go back to someone so horrible-!"  
Wow, this is the first time I've seen him lose his composure like this.

"Hey, we're friends, right, Kiri-chan, we're had some laughs together. I'm begging you, please let me stay with you-! If I go back to that Nee-san, I won't be able to watch television again."  
Coin-kun flails about.  
Seeing his erratic movements, it seems like he's really panicked.  
…That's that and…  
Unable to watch television?

"Wait, is being able to watch television all you care about?"

"Well, you see my master is a horrifying person. She has the personality of a witch, and smiles like one as well. She betrayed her father and took me from my resting place, and then travelled half the world. Guess where I was stuck? That's right, in the cargo hold."  
Wait, that's not that bad isn't it? I mean being trapped in the luggage compartment of a plane for a few hours as a ghost couldn't be that horrible.  
"Oh… I see… that's horrible." Now it's my turn to not really care.  
"That's right…! My master even chopped her own younger brother into seventeen pieces just to slow her father down! And then when she finally reached her destination, guess what she did? She killed her husband's uncle-in-law by chopping him up and placing him in a cauldron. Now, I haven't made many contracts before, but this witch… you know she even killed her children. So please, let me stay in Kiri-chan's house."  
Wah, wah. Wow, he's actually crying.  
But this master… could it be that a serial killer has come to Fuyuki? I know there was a serial killer that stole children about ten years ago but…  
Hey…  
This is starting to get out of hand, and Coin-kun is supposed to protect this person  
Well with that kind of introduction, I can't think of a person other than a serial killer, and that would mean I'm getting into some kind of serious business now isn't it?  
But I sort of think that person sounds familiar, like I know someone who goes by such a description, just that I'm not sure where I heard such a thing.  
Ummm, maybe I should call witness protection or be shouting mayday.

"Well with a master like that you must have gone through a lot of trouble."

"Isn't that right? Wow Kiri-chan, your 'dere,' side does show through sometimes. Now I can watch television any time that I want!"  
"So, where does this person live?"

"—Uh? It's a place with horribly static television. Why would Kiri-chan do with that kind of knowledge anyway?"  
"What do you mean? If you're going to send a package, you need an address."

"…"  
It stares at me staring at it for a moment.

It's still crying.  
But in these last few seconds I have built up a resistance to those tears with pure apathy.

"…I get how it is. I'm too much of a mystery to Kiri-chan, and my existence isn't beyond that of a dignitary. Yes, it was foolish for me to expect recognition from some backwater creature like you. It's alright though, just leave me where you found you. Ah… and I was impressed into thinking what kind girl you were, the way you refilled my drink and gave me things to eat, you'd make a good wife."  
Coin-kun mutters.  
You know, these days' women do more than cook and clean you sexist old man.

"Geez, I just can't deal with things like you. As a ghost just don't begrudge me, and as a goat, don't eat my hair."  
"I'm not a goat, but as a ghost it's obvious that I would hold a grudge."  
"Yea, I guess that's what ghosts do."

Saying that, I turn my back towards it.  
"Well, then it can't be helped. I don't know how long it will last, but this is a battle of attrition."

"I'm going back to class, so you keep watch of the house. Kouta seems to like you, it seems he might be sad if you left, he's at a delicate stage."  
'Right-io,' I say and open the now unhinged door of the roof and exit down the stairs.  
Behind my back is the joyful sound of pumpkin being eaten.  
"-Hah."  
I don't know how many times, I've sighed in these past few days.  
…Still, I think this story is coming to an end.  
If his story is true, then his serial killer of a master of his will be looking for him as well, so when the day comes, I can just return him.  
And if his master demands repayment… I'll be ready.  
Anyway, if I try to get rid of him now, he might get angry, which might make Kouta sad, which will make me sad.  
Plus, it doesn't really matter that much.  
If I brought it home, I have to take responsibility of it, it's the belief of a person who has only ever lived for herself.

* * *

/

"Oh, good morning Kiri-chan, you're early today."  
"Ah, it's all the same for you isn't it, seeing as you have Archery in the morning, is it really that straining to wake up so early in the morning?"  
"I don't know Kiri-chan, sometimes it's good to sleep in, by the way you've been looking more and more tired these past few days. I think you even feel asleep in class."  
"Well, I'm glad to have someone like you sitting next to me. The teacher never really looks in this direction since there is so much more nonsense on the other side of the class room."  
"Well, Kiri-chan, ummm, if I may say something, you can tell if you're having any problems at home… Not that it's any of my business or anything, but yea, you can talk to me if you want to."  
"That's rare, but I think you have a lot more on your plate than someone like me. I mean, you are the sister of that Shinji aren't you? Putting up with someone like him… I just don't see how do it, and yet worry about someone else's problem. You're too nice."  
"Oh, no, not at all." She blushes rather cutely.  
"Hey… Matou… Are you scared of ghosts?"  
I decide to ask her because she seems like a person who would know a lot about the occult. I don't know if it's the house she lives in, or the creepy reason I know where she lives, but yes, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the better Masters Coin-kun was talking about was Matou Sakura.  
"…Heh, Kiri-chan, what is this all of a sudden, did you see a ghost or something?"  
"Ummm, not really, I guess I just want to know a little more about you Matou-san, we sit next to each other, but we don't really talk. Actually I've never really seen you really talk to anyone else in this class."  
"And neither have I seen you ever talk, so I guess that makes us even. Well I guess that answer depends. Are you asking if I'm scared of becoming a ghost, or do I dislike the idea of ghosts in general? I guess the answer would change if you change that."  
"Hmmm that sounds like something that Himuro-Senpai would say, but what does that mean exactly?"  
"Well, I guess what I mean is; are you asking me if I'm scared of a dead person coming back as a ghost, or do I not want to meet a dead person, I guess that would be the best way to explain it."  
"-Hmmm, as I thought. Matou-san you are actually quite sharp about things like this, and you're so willing to help."  
"Heh, heh, you really shouldn't be praising me like that, it's a rather normal answer though, but you were talking about whether ghosts were scary weren't you?"  
"No, well, that was part of it, but thanks Matou-san, it's because of you that I figured out a problem that was making me wonder a bit… Yea, that's definitely scary, meeting someone who has gone through death, and yet is still here."  
"…Hmm, could it be Kiri-chan that you don't like ghosts?"  
"It's not that I don't like them, it's more like they seriously annoy me, having a grudge that makes you stay in this world… no thank you. What about you Matou-san?"  
"Well, I think I would have to say that's I'm more frightened of someone I know coming back to life, and anyway I'm more accustomed to vampires. Truth be told though, if it's unpleasant, it's unpleasant. There might be on or two people that I would like to meet though… but that doesn't make the possibility any less scary."

"People you would like to meet, like ancestors or maybe heroes of the past or something like that?"  
"Hmmm, well usually, if the ghost in question happens to someone who is removed from the circle of reincarnation like a hero, you could call them a Heroic Spirit… But Kiri-chan I didn't know you had such a fascination with the occult, I thought you were one of the most down to earth girls in the class."  
"Ah-, well recently there are been all those gas leaks right? So I was wondering if they have been caused by some ghosts or something, due to certain things happening to my house, but I would have to say that this is over."  
"Over, you mean us talking about ghosts?"  
"Well, I'm pretty sure that ghosts exist, and maybe it would be nice to talk to one or two that aren't annoying, but then I realized what they truly are, and became worried about that fact."  
"What do you mean Kiri-chan?"  
"It's just that ghosts are made from regrets, right, past grudges, things like that. These certainly weren't happy people in life. I guess I could say that I will be different from these dead people, learn more, be successful, be happy, but that isn't always guaranteed is it? I mean, these ghosts are living examples that in the end some people will fail in life. We're always taught to follow our dreams and such, but when you look at the evidence… we'll it's quite disheartening. That's why I won't acknowledge the existence of something like a ghost."  
A whisper, "Hey, Kiri-chan."  
"Yes, Matou-san."  
"Sometimes you can be horribly mean."  
Did I say something to offend her?

* * *

3/

Before the school trip, towards the beginning of the school year was about when it took place.  
In our school, it is up to the chairman to elect the student council members. It's always been that way. It's rather stupid and allows for something the Americans call the "spoils system," a type of corruption. It first began as a way to 'unify,' the student council under one banner; however, of course, the chairman would always choose his or her friends for the jobs.  
That is until Ryuudou Iseei became student council chairman.  
At that time, everyone had expected Tohsaka-Senpai to become Vice-Chairman or at least have a spot even if she didn't want to be part of the council, claiming it would 'impede,' her studies. Others predicted Matou Shinji to take a place as well, merely because of his popularity.  
That's why everyone was shocked when the names were listened.  
That's why everyone was even more shocked when the Vice-Chairman spot wasn't even filled.  
While the teacher don't have much of a role in the student council system, except for Kuzuki-Sensei who oversees it, they still thoroughly talked to him, but he still would not budge, 'there was no one right for the job,' were his words.

Those that he did elect were student that hated him. Maybe hate is a strong word. They were happy in their comfortable places above where the rest of us were, but they had not been consulted for their roles, merely chosen.  
You see, Ryuudou Issei had merely selected the best people for each job. It didn't matter what year they were in or where their allegiances laid, he merely chose then on merit.  
I'm sure those first couple of weeks must have been more than tough, all those rebellious heads wandering about, not doing what you ask of them.  
Of course, in the end they compromised with each other, even if only now do they have set hours.

I'm not the person that would instantly understand why someone would do this. Surely it must be a lot easier to surround yourself with friends and pretend like you're doing work.  
However, it may be so the best people for the job are the best people for the job, but that doesn't make them the correct person for the job.  
I definitely understood though that I would never reconcile with the idea that this person was trying to actualize… no, not try to actualize, his very existence was the actualization of his ideal.  
He was doing this for other people, and other people only. Other people included those that he elected, to Tohsaka-Senpai who he didn't elect, to me, who would uncaringly benefit from this student council, and even himself, even if he never thought about himself for an instant.

He was the embodiment of everything that I denied.  
Knowing this much, I truly thought that I would either have to make him mine or kill him.  
We had grown rather "friendly," during our time in the committee for the school trip. Actually we hadn't really even talked at all; however at the end of the whole trip we had a party for all those who had actually planned it and pretended that we were all friendly with each other. That is, everyone except for Tohsaka-Senpai and Ryuudou-Senpai.  
So I decided to spend time with him, deciding which path I would take.  
Most of the time he would take lunch with another Senpai, the unofficial school janitor, but when he was not, I would pop in under pretenses and eat lunch with him.  
Eventually I noticed that he did not have much meat in his lunchbox and offered to make him some.  
I don't know why he accepted that quickly.  
Was this guy an idiot that happened to really like meat, or was it because I was offering, and he felt that because I was offering it would make me happy to make him food?

Well either way, I never received any sort of answer.  
We would just sit there and eat; me eating, him reading the paper sometimes or doing shogi problems.  
It was a peaceful setting, one that made me feel as if I was truly part of the scenery and nothing else.

Eventually he would ask me some questions, mostly probably to entertain me. There was no point in him entertaining himself.  
He would ask about whether this was right or wrong, or whether he really should be as he puts it abuse 'the good will of Emiya Shirou.'  
Oh course I answered, that it 'isn't abuse if the right sort of people are doing it to benefit other people.'  
He asked me if my scratches were okay at one point, to which I had to reply they were somehow miraculously gone.

Well, it came to the point when we were rather familiar with each other.  
After all that mundane talk and there forth, he said "You know, you are the perfect person."  
At that I said without a hint of embarrassment or conceit in my voice, "Yes, I know."  
The perfect person is one who is so bent out of shape they can only care for themselves. In only caring for themselves they are able to judge to world according to only one set of morals, one set of system, one common sense, and thereby make decisions without ever flinching. It's a waste to think about other people.

He made a blank face and then just laughed at me, something very rare for someone like him.  
As if he heard something beyond ridiculous, he just laughed at me.  
I really should have hit him, but he had such a good expression on his face.  
That must be a laugh for a person so horribly innocent that they didn't even know what I was talking about.  
Then he asked me something.

And that's when I ran out of the clubroom.

When I think about it, my life is a stupid story, and the fact that I think that it's a story is pathetic and stupid in itself.  
Just who do I think I am? Some sort of protagonist?

Today is slightly different from most other days because even if I grab my blank head and shake it a bit. I still can't get that faint headache out that comes with being so close to chlorine.  
Today is Pool Day.  
Pool Day is horrible.  
Pool Day is even more horrible this year because it just so happens this new water park known as Waku Waku Splash Land was going to open this summer.  
Why couldn't we have pool day in the summer?  
It's supposed to be an all season indoor water park. Everything from water slides to artificial wave pools are housed under its domed roof. It always feels like summer – or so the announcement said, even though we'll be there at summer...  
Well don't get me wrong, it's every girl's dream to lie on the sand and think "this feels like summer," even when it's not summer, but doing it during summer, is quite…  
I don't know how to put it…  
The feeling is the same as learning that Kuzuki-Sensei is getting married.  
Either way, we're here in this indoor public pool because our school does this activity in winter, just for fun. I have no idea how this began, or what sort of insane person thought up of this, but if I knew who they were, I'd curse them with Coin-kun.  
Well that being said, it's not like our school doesn't have a pool of its own. It's an eight laned, fifty meter long pool, so unsurprisingly someone needs to clean all the algae and moss with a bristled brush every year, and then sterilize it. Of course the swim team is supposed to do all that; however the person who helps them every year…

-is standing in front of me right now.

"Oh, you're Kirishima right?"  
"Yes, for your information that was indeed my stomach was growling is there a problem with that?"  
Usually I would be nicer, but how can I be nice when my stomach is empty?

This morning my family left before I did since we are allowed to sleep-in during Pool Day. As we are expected to meet at the site, many students sleep-in. In the past I was one of the people who got there first, simply because there would be less fuss later on and I could seamlessly blend into the scenery, but this year because of that goat ghost, I slept in.  
Anyway, I was hungry so I opened the refrigerator to get some food.  
Of course it was empty.  
And of course there could only be one culprit.  
"That damned brat!"

"Now, now, Kirishima-kun, you shouldn't be so mean to Emiya-kun. He's been here earlier than the rest of us, helping me get this place set up."  
It sounds like it should be a cheerful voice, a soothing one, but that is not Ryuudou Issei's way of talking. His is a much more monotonous voice.

"You don't seem like you're enjoying yourself Kirishima."  
"I don't know, maybe I would feel better if my Senpais treated me to something."  
Pool Day is the only day you can get away with that.  
I'm hungry.  
I don't have much money left.  
This is obviously a new low for me.

Of course the only thing to eat in a place like this is store bought yakisoba, but it's good enough.  
The three of us, me being the obvious outsider, sit and talking about more meaningless things.  
"Well next year I really hope to settle the inequality in club fees, and improve the organizations as well as amend some of the school regulations."  
While happily munching his Obanyaki… now I think about it Ryuudou-Senpai seems to really like Obanyaki…  
Who knew that a guy like that would like sweets?  
Either way, as I was saying, we talk about mindless things, things that don't benefit me at all, like clubs and organizations.  
Emiya-Senpai chimes in once or twice while eating that bento I bet some girl made for him. It looks like a girl's bento with all the decorations, and nicely laid out food and such.  
Hey, didn't I hear a rumor that Emiya-Senpai lives with Fujimura-Sensei…  
Actually scratch that, there is no way that a girl made a bento for him.

"So Emiya, a few of the heaters are broken."  
"Oh, which ones?"  
"The one in the second AV rom and the art club. I've been getting a couple more petitions for new stoves but…"

Another uninteresting conversation.  
It doesn't matter that much to me whether the second floor AV room or the art club actually have heating or not, us first years happen to be in the fourth floor.  
But you might think it odd that the student council president chairman is talking about broken heaters with a normal student, but that is what Emiya Shirou is…  
If anything needs fixing, he's the guy, in fact, I think he might put the school janitor out of a job soon.

"Do you think I can be fixed?"  
"Well, I guess I'll actually have to look at it before I make any decisions on that, but right now I'm more worried about Shinji more than anything. It doesn't seem he's even here today."  
"Gah, do you have to mention him? I'm sure he's out in Shinto, skipping school."  
"You know Ryuudou-Senpai, we are in Shinto…"  
It seems the student council chairman is not infallible after all.  
"Oh I guess we are, but bigger problem seems to be the number of males that happen just to be staring at Toshaka, that witch…. I'd like to pray for those young men's souls, but…"

So yes, Pool Day is horrible… for us girls.  
The boys on the other hand…  
-swimsuits in winter?  
If I had to make an educated guess on who created Pool Day, I would have to say that it was some male student council chairman who believed that the only way to conquer the winter blues was to look at girls in swimsuits, allowing one to hold the illusion of summer, for a day, and that illusion would get him through the rest of winter.  
It makes a bit of sense; after all, it is the middle of winter.  
So for some girls, today is a battle more fierce than Valentine's Day, and just like last year, the winner is Tohsaka Rin, the 'school idol.' Of course, none of the boys are stupid or fearless enough to approach her, if they did, according to Ryuudou-Senpai, their heads would be chopped up and eaten.  
But every girl in this area can tell, Tohsaka Rin has demolished the competition again.

Ryuudou-Senpai and Emiya-Senpai excuse themselves and leave for a moment saying they'll be back with the desert I ordered.  
I wonder if Ryuudou-Senpai is trying to bribe me into the Student Council. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he would stoop to such levels.  
Remember, he's the type that would elect those that fiercely dislike him.  
It's not that he's fearless as that would imply he is lacking in fear; it's more like he doesn't care about the fear that overwhelms him. That level of serenity and acceptance is the exact opposite to my shroud of paranoia and self-loathing to the point of narcissim.  
Well time to finish my yakisoba because you know they say that girl has a different stomach for sweets.  
So I'll just pick up these chopst-

"This is pretty bad…"  
"Then don't eat it you idiot!"  
It's bad enough that it's Pool Day but… urgh!  
There are no words that can explain my annoyance. Everything is just circling through my head wanting to hurt this thing that is right in front of me, but I'm sure that will only attract attention and make it worse for me.  
Calm down…  
That's right, I'll just calm down.

"So why are you here?"  
In a very nonchalant reply,  
"I can't find the remote."  
Cannot, calm down…  
"Then look for it or use the buttons on the television!"

A couple of people stare at my outburst for a second before returning to whatever they were doing.  
I'm sure there is rumor going around that Kirishima is going through a nervous breakdown. No wonder those two were so nice to me.  
"Wow Kiri-chan, you're embarrassing me here. I just popped here to check up on you… but wow, you're actually not that bad when you get down to it."  
"Having a ghost compliment me on my looks doesn't make me happy and all."  
"And getting those two strapping young men to buy you food, geez, Kiri-chan, no bad, no bad at all. You could be a witch."  
"No thank you, I like my nose the way it is and I'm scared of heights."  
"Oh, so even a woman like Kiri-chan is scared of something."

Don't treat me as something on your level you goat ghost.

"Well get back home or something."  
"But there's no television…."  
Such an annoying bleating sound.  
"Fine then, you can stay here. Now go near the pool or something and leave me alone."  
"Ah, the pool. The stench of chlorine is really too strong for a delicate ghost like me, I think I'll just walk around or something."  
"…You act like you obey me, but in reality, you don't have any intention of listening to me at all now do you?"  
"Huh? Not really, it's just that if you look at the social hierarchy of the world, there's a big gap between us."

"Oh really, so ghosts are more important than living beings now?"

"Kirishima-kun were you talking to someone?"  
Ah… Ryuudou-Senpai and Emiya-Senpai are back, this is-

Wait, why is Coin-kun's face as white as a ghost's?  
Other than the fact that he is a ghost that is.  
Like some kind of rodent, he shoots away.

"Oh…ohoho… I was talking to myself of course… yea, just me here no one else…"  
The Student Council Chairman twists his lip,  
"Maybe, you need more rest."  
"Yea, that's probably it."

As I'm eating my desert, I sense that Coin-kun is eyeing me jealously, yet worriedly.  
Well it definitely was a first for Pool Day.  
That's right, it seemed that at one point or another, everyone lost a piece of food whether it was a slice of bread or some cucumber sticks.  
I don't think the school is ever going to come back to this pool again which I would say is a good thing, and in a few weeks there are going to be rumors about a ghost that lives in the pool, that takes people's food.  
Sadly, that was my ghost.

I ended up walking home.  
I didn't feel like taking public transport and had to carry everything I bought from Verde and then shopping district with me.  
It was difficult, but it makes me feel as if I'm an admirable girl, so it's okay.

And Coin-kun?  
After there was nothing to eat, he went back home.  
He was amazingly quiet, as if…  
No, there is no way that a ghost can be scared, much less a ghost like him that doesn't care about anything other than television and food.

After placing all the groceries on the kitchen table, I go back up to my room and open to open the door.

Coin-kun is just sitting there.

I expected him to be watching some television show as usual, but for some reason he seems different.  
"I know what it is. Goats aren't supposed to eat yakisoba right, so you're sick."  
Strange, he doesn't even rebut with the classical 'I'm not a goat.'  
He just looks up at me and…

"That person, he's like my master."  
Says such an ambiguous and random thing.

"That person? Which person?"  
"The one with the orange hair. He's like my master."  
"What do you mean? Are you saying your real master looks the same as him?"  
"No, physically they're worlds apart. I have only had two masters before, and he looks nothing like them. Kiri-chan is the first to be so weak, those other two are monsters."  
'Although, it's only temporary,' Coin-kun adds.

"That person just had an air about him that was similar. That person is someone very, very scary."  
"…? Well I guess he does look kind of foreboding sometimes. So what do you exactly find about him that's similar?"  
"They're same in that they've both died, but what's more important is that they have no longer hold their own lives."  
The ghost speaks bluntly.

"-"  
'But what's more important is that they no longer hold their own lives…" well wouldn't that be the logical conclusion to 'they've both died,' but even that is a magnificent leap in logic for me, and I shouldn't even be talking.  
Nodding while wondering what he exactly means. I find that Coin-kun was staring at me.

"What is it? You look like you want to say something."  
"… Hah, I always thought that Kouta-kun and Kiri-chan were strange, quite distorted, but I didn't expect that there would be someone like him that was still alive in this day and age. Don't you find that person scary? You do know that it'd dangerous to be with someone like that."  
"Dangerous, huh. Well luckily, I don't really know him at all. We just happened to eat lunch together today."  
"…That's good then."  
It's a half-hearted response.  
"Why? If I approach that person will something bad happen to me?"

Coin-kun doesn't answer.

For some reason, I know what he wants to say.  
The fact comes from how he is called the unofficial school janitor. It's definitely something that no one in the world would want to do willingly, yet he is the type of person to revel in it. I have heard stories about how Emiya-Senpai will help anyone as long as he can do it, even the people that hate him.  
Yes, I think I can understand it the most, as it is almost the polar opposite to me. It seems he thinks that other people are more important to him. I'm not talking about the common opinion that we save others so we can be loved, for that's how I live life.  
So…  
There are people with others as their priority.  
But then the sense of "self," is something special that you can't put on a scale, in fact, it would only make sense to call it the scale itself, but that person's actions…  
It's like he's trying to destroy that scale for the sake of other people.  
Trying to save everyone is a thankless job before it is an impossible job.

The only thing that is capable of such a feat is robot programmed to do such feat, over and over again, but Emiya-Senpai is a human, he has a personality and makes girly bento boxes.  
So then this action of his.  
This pure repetition that goes on and on…  
If I had to make an analogy, I would say its origin is like a baby chick copying a mother chick because it is the only thing that she knows.  
Just like a certain girl dyed in vermillion.  
To people that are closer to me, those who want to live good lives for themselves and therefore worry about themselves, Emiya Shirou, make them feel like horrible, selfish people, must have looked beyond frightening.  
Of course they could laugh at him saying how much of an idiot he was for doing what no else wanted, but that would just add to their uneasiness.  
So because Emiya Shirou is similar to myself, as if we are two hands on a clock off by just an hour. A distance so minuscule three is no reason to acknowledge such a distance. I can say that say that the only people who can ever understand Ryuudou Issei, who is on the opposite side of the spectrum, are myself and Emiya Shirou.

"A normal person isn't fit for him. I haven't spent much time around him… but every time I am with him, it feels as if there is some sort of martyr complex about him. That he would definitely do something even if it killed him, that sort of reckless that goes beyond being a testosterone-filled teenager."

"…Kiri-chan, when you said that you didn't know him that well, I was relived. That's the sort of person who goes looking for trouble, so for him to have approached you would mean that there is something seriously wrong with you. And for something to be seriously wrong at a time like this can only mean one thing. That, maybe after staying late at school, you see two heroes fighting or something like that."

"…You have quite the imagination Coin-kun. That sort of thing only happens in novels, the anime's you watch, or games. They don't happen in real life you know. And anyway, I don't really care about those things if I can't benefit."

"… Unlike Kouta-kun, Kiri-chan is incredibly selfish. Why is that?"  
Coin-kun genuinely questions me for the first time in a while.  
Actually, this is the first time he has he's genuinely asked me something other than to get him food or drinks.  
"The reason why I'm so selfish? Maybe because it's because I'm adopted…"  
"Wait, so then…"  
"Yea, Kouta isn't my real brother and these aren't my real parents either, but I don't really like to think of it that way. You noticed right? That we don't really look that much alike."  
"Well, to me, all Japanese people look the same…"  
"Well I could say to same for all you foreigners."  
"But that doesn't really make sense, wouldn't being adopted make you a more genial and selfless person, because you would have gratitude for those who took you in?"  
"What are you talking about? I am genial. I'm one of the most genial people in the world. I'm the only genial person that matters."  
"Kiri-chan is weird."  
"Well, it's not that I'm selfish because I was adopted, neither is it that I am adopted because I am selfish… rather… I went through something scary. It was so scary that it forced me to be selfish."  
"What? I don't understand that. I get how someone can go through so scary they wouldn't fear death, but so scary they become like Kiri-chan, that's just…"

Coin-kun is shocked and enters deep thought.  
As if thinking of something he nods and raises his face.

"They were killed, weren't they? Slaughter by the henchmen of the red haired demon Akiha, as she used you as bait for the great Phantas-Moon and wrapped you in her Origami Temple!"  
I don't know which one of us is the surprised one.  
"Errr, that's actually quite accurate," I hit him anyway, "But don't go comparing my life to that one anime!"

"Ahhh, how tragic, and because of her prolonged stay in the Origami Temple, Kiri-chan's nature was all twisted, and that's why you have about the same personality as the demon Akiha."  
I think there are tears in his eyes.  
Tears of happiness that is, because my life is now a homage to his favorite television show.

"But to have become so selfish because of that I don't really think it works. Did the demon Akiha try to shower you with treasures she had stolen from the Great Millennium Castle Brunestud so you would become one of her henchmen?"  
"Ah- that's not right either, but it's actually rather close. The situations are quite similar."  
"Oh? You keeps saying that it's not right but close, so it's hard to tell. Can't you simply tell me, like you always do?

Is she trying to say that I like to reveal secrets.  
I guess I'll settle this with him, but really, my life isn't like an anime at all."

"Well before we begin, there's something that I haven't told you yet. The blood, the blood of the Kirishima family…"  
"It's not human is it?"  
Now it's my turn to be shocked.  
"What? How did you know?"  
"Well it's not that hard is it. The first time you saw me, you cared less about the fact that I was a ghost, and more that I stole you pumpkin slices. You obviously thought that the occult was something that existed, but you aren't a magus or an unfit existence so…"  
"Humph, it'd be better if the occult didn't exist at all. Anyway, as you have figured out our blood isn't purely human. Even the characters for Kirishima (霧島) represents that."  
"Ahhh, so that is why the 'island' is 'foggy.' Now I think about it, that's actually really smart. I always thought that way of reading it was strange, but didn't you say you were adopted, so how can you have non-human blood in you?"

"Well, a while back there was this company called the Saeki group. I'm sure you can still find records about then, then were later taken in by the Tohno Group."  
"Oh, the Tohno Group, I know them, they're the ones that broadcast White Vampire Princess: Phantas-Moon."  
"Right, they own a few newspapers as well, but you see, they also have non-human blood running through the veins."  
"Oh?"  
"The Saeki group, or my mother tells me, used to be a dynastic, stuffy old group that believed they were superior because of their ancient blood. The head of the group at the time actually enjoyed eating the flesh of humans."  
"How would your mother know this?"  
"She was one of his many daughters, so she would know the best. So one day, this Saeki group annihilated the Kishima family, another half-blood family, my father's family."  
"Oh, they ran away together didn't they?"  
"Yes, they did. It's one those classic love stories. It's so cliché that I can't laugh because if I start there is no way I can stop, but it's good that they did because the very next day Saeki was found assassinated along with thirty other relatives."  
"But you said they weren't human right? What could kill so many non-humans?"  
"Geez, you're full of questions aren't you? Well I don't know much, but apparently in this country, there is something called the Demon Hunter Organization… as their name states they kill demons."  
"What? They kill demons? How… even my master could be easily crushed by a Primordial Demon."  
"Primordial Demon? Our blood comes from the Oni, or Ogres of this country. I don't think that has anything to do with your Primordial Demons whatever they are."  
"Well anyway, my parents escaped that, changed their name to what it is today, and went around the country looking for other remaining people like them."  
"And that's when they found you, right? You and Kouta?"  
"No, Kouta is their child by blood, they only found me."

It was over ten years ago.  
And for some reason it is my first memory, I can't even remember a day before that incident, because even if my body survived, I'm sure that my mind must have be obliterated.

"When I woke up, I was in red. That was my first memory, just being a pool of red and gazing up at an empty sky. I had no idea why I was there, I was a little girl after all, but soon I realized that the red that I was lying in…  
-it was coming from all the bodies around me.  
I still remember it clearly, the wind that hurt every time is brushed the thin clothes that I was wearing. I think I must have been on top of some skyscraper somewhere.  
Isn't that stupid, just like some sort of movie, the top floor of a building being turned into a battlefield. It's something that definitely has no place in reality, and I was alone, just so alone.  
I was sure I was the only who survived whatever had occurred there.  
It was strange… the building that we on top of. There was icicles even if it wasn't winter, gigantic smoking craters, and surprisingly a lot of plant life; it was as if nature was fighting against itself.  
It was cold and scary, so naturally I didn't want to stay there for another second."

"That's… incredibly scary, having watched your either family slaughtered and slaughtering right in front of our eyes."  
"Yes, I can't remember the slaughtering part; maybe that would have broken me further so I'm grateful that I didn't see everything."  
"Didn't you scream for help though?"  
"I don't think I could even talk. I just laid there gazing up at the empty sky, being scared."  
"Is that why you're scared of heights Kiri-chan?"

"Yea, every time I go to a particularly high place, I am reminded of that scene and I naturally freeze up."  
"Because of the blood?"  
"No, because of the bodies."

That's right, I only realized a few years later that they were bodies.  
Those lumps of red that looked like some kind of Egyptian mummy.  
That building top was full of them, all sleeping in the blood with some sort of horrified expression in their face.  
I may have been stained in red, but these bodies… these things… they were beyond red, so it was deeper than red or crimson, so the colour must have been vermillion.

"They all looked the same, so I doubt I could tell who was who. They just looked like statues, figures that were seared into space and time, never to awaken or do anything again. The most eerie thing was that they were just standing there, most of them anyway, some were on the ground, and others were in pieces. I had no idea why they were there or what sort of person put them there, but I realized that these were the remains my family as well as the people who were trying to kill my family."

"So I just laid there. Laid there waiting for someone to rescue me or to die, all the time wondering why I was the one who was still alive. It's a very complicated problem for a little girl at age five and it was so terribly lonely…  
And then I realized.  
It didn't matter if this was an act of god to save me and only me.  
It didn't matter if it was something my parents did to save me by sacrificing themselves.  
All those people didn't matter at all.  
Even if I had lost everything in the world, there was still one thing that I had.  
There was still one thing that I could look upon and call my own.  
One, little, precious thing, something that had infinite value because I decided to place infinite value upon it.  
And so I understood a little more that day.  
I am myself.  
The only me is me, and decide to find myself precious.  
The self needs to be saved because without the self there is no you.  
And that means you are the most important thing in the world to yourself, there is no underemphasizing that.  
Because if you don't have yourself…  
-you really have no one."

That is the catharsis that I came upon. Since I was the only person for me, I had to protect and care about her more than anyone else.

"But Kiri-chan… you only came to this answer because you were the one who killed them, right?"

I nod my head solemnly.  
Really, this ghost can be sharp when he wants to.  
It's obvious isn't it, the only reason I survived, and how I know that my blood is not human. The logical conclusion was that I was the reason for all the red on that building.  
Something must have happened when they were fighting and I somehow went out of control and killed everyone.  
I came to that conclusion as a five year old girl gazing up at the empty sky, scared of falling into it.

I can soundly say that I never have experienced a terror that surpassed that thought, the thought that I killed everyone.  
Which is why I embraced that the only person who truly matters is the self, and that narcissism isn't as ugly as everyone thinks it is.  
To have no regard for one's self is to be worse than broken. It is not to care, not to judge. There is nothing valuable without the self deciding whether it is or not.  
That's why I am selfish.  
That's what this story is.  
It's just a trivial little tale about how I learned what I needed to safeguard.

"Well, that's what happened. Since I happened to murder my entire family, I'm a bit more restrained than most people. And also - since I've decided on how I am going to live, I feel that I'm more perfect that others."

"Hah. Kiri-chan, you've decided on how you are going to live?"  
"Ah, well, since all these things have happened, I want to solely live for myself so I won't leave behind any burdens."

"Hmmm, I see. Since I'm already dead, I don't have anything like that."

"Oh, that's right, you're a ghost… Wait, did you say you didn't have any regrets?"  
"Well, I didn't die while leaving behind anything like a regret, but being summoned in this era and thinking about it now…"  
The ghost is pensive.  
"Then how are you a ghost? A ghost is something that is still lingering because of a grudge."  
"I think I already told you that I'm not a ghost, but rather some kind of familiar. I shouldn't even be existing as a familiar though."  
"That again. So what is a familiar?"

"You really want to know?...I'm sure someone like Kouta-kun would understand it better than someone with no gaming sense like you, but it can't be helped."

Coin-kun gets ready.  
I've seen him like this before, when he is explaining some game to Kouta.

"Let's see, if I were to go by your calendar, I'd be about three thousand years ago. Among familiars there are those which are created by a magus, someone who takes a leftover thought and implants it into a dead animal. Those make up the lower classes of familiars, there are puppets and more but that's something else entirely.  
However, among the top familiars are what we called guardian spirits. They can be split into two types, those who turned into guardian spirits naturally and those who unnaturally got turned into a guardian spirit, I'm the latter kind of guardian spirit. But whether it's natural or not, usually the phantasmal species or whatever you're trying to make into a familiar needs to be combined with the spirit of a human to place it on the side of humans.  
Of course there are different rankings and there are some people who have attached themselves as a guardian spirit to a place."  
"… Even if I'm also a non-human, I don't understand a word of what you are saying. It sounds like the stuff Kouta talks about after he's finished playing a game or watched an anime."

"Don't you want to at least know the basics of how your world works?"  
"Not if it doesn't affect me in anyway I don't."

"Sigh, I guess I'll just continue the story then.  
I was originally a human, unlike Kiri-chan.  
I was born in an island ruled by a good king.  
It was beautiful place with a sacred grove and a river that ran through the island. It was a city called Aietes."

He sighs a bit, as if reminiscencing.

"One day a boy came from the sky on top of a golden ram. He said his name was Phriox and that he has travelled to Aia from Hellas. He explained that his uncle was trying to murder him to obtain the throne and that his sister had fallen off the holy ram as they were being chased.  
At once, the elders understood that this man, although saved by the great gods Zeus and Hermes, was supposed to be someone who should have died.  
Why else had his sister died during that trip? If not as a sacrifice to the gods that had saved them from their uncle, then what was their worth?  
Surely they must have died together, yet the elders could not sacrifice this man. The King at that time wanted to use him as a political force that would consolidate his power so there was no way he could sacrifice that boy.  
So the elders were at an impasse, they would need sacrifice the holy ram to their chief god, but they would also need to sacrifice a boy with it as well to balance the deaths.  
They were stupid though; they weren't as smart as my current master nor did they know much about how the world works.  
You see a divine beast like the ram originally belongs in nature, and thereby rejects humans even if it is ordered to accept them, that is their undeniable law which is the real reason why his sister died. Anyway when a spirit with the same values as a human- that is a human, joins that nature spirit inside the fleece, it becomes what I am."

"The spirit of the human was of a much lower rank than the nature spirit and was thus absorbed but as a result, it acquired knowledge as a human, and gradually acquired a human's values.  
So, now, do you understand?  
What Kiri-chan calls 'Coin-kun' was originally the boy who was offered as that human spirit. Eh-, the origin of the nature spirit was a ram, not a goat, and that's why I ended up half spirit half human like this."  
"…I don't know, you still seem quite goat-y to me."

"Well that's not exactly the reason why I'm still around now. I disappeared a few thousand years ago because of something or another, but thanks to a certain cup of heaven, I'm back here ready to enjoy all the pleasures of the modern world.  
But truth be told, it was really hard. Gaining control of myself, and then constructing a body like this…  
I don't like to say this, but it's because of my master that I'm here today."  
Usually I would tell him to go back to his master if he loves him or her so much, but…  
"Hey, what kind of joke are you trying to pull here?"

Because he confronted me, I have to confront him.  
"What are you talking about? Everything I told you was the truth."

"You…you said you were a human offering. A human offering is a sacrifice. A sacrifice is something that was killed for the purpose of strangers."  
"That's a misunderstanding. Everyone offered their body, it's the law, and I was chosen. There wasn't much I could do while alive, so I thought this would be better for everyone.  
But you know, the sacrifice was pretty amazing! Well I dead by then, so I was in spirit form, but it really was amazing. It was such a clear day, and then I got moved to this oak tree in the sacred grove.  
I was even guarded by a dragon because I was so important.  
Yup, after seeing that dragon, I thought for the first time that my life was well spent, and I was overjoyed."

'So there is no way I can allow myself to have any regrets,' he said.  
There's no way I can accept that.

"So then why do you watch so much anime, and play all those games?  
There's something more isn't there, something that you're not talking about."

"Well after that there were some regrettable things.  
A few decades after my sacrifice, a group of heroes came to retrieve me for some purpose. A lot of people died because of them, and in the end, one of the king's daughters ended up betraying her father.  
Hahaha, it's a pretty well-known legend these day, I'm sure if I told you the name you'd show a bit more respect for me but…"  
It's something that he wants to keep locked in his heart.

"I stood there amidst the battlefields many times and told them that they didn't need to fight, but no one ever heard me. They were too busy fighting among themselves.  
That was it.  
Even though I had given up my life so others could be happy… they weren't.  
That made me really sad.  
But then when I first materialized in this time, I happened to see you had what you call Magical Girls. They're amazing, you know, magical girls are, and I thought to myself, if only we had a magical girl back in that time, if only Phantas-Moon was there… maybe things would be different, maybe all those people wouldn't have needed to die for my sake.  
Enforcers of love and justice… I think we needed those in my time.  
So I think I admire them."

'That's kind of stupid,' he adds.

"-"  
Even if he is one of the deranged otaku kind, he has problems of his own.  
I don't know how the conversation came to this point, but I don't think it's stupid at all.  
Maybe it's something about me, but I'm weak against people like me.  
And sadly, maybe it's because I didn't want to look at it, this ram ghost's origin and mine are similar.  
For things to be balanced, someone who was forbidden from having a sense of self like him shouldn't be with someone who only care's about herself like me. He is much suited towards someone trying their best for someone else's sake.

"Hmmm, it seems that I was a bit too harsh on you, you must have gone through quite a bit."  
"I can't really say that I have. Really, I was living such a great life with that dragon, we were quite good friends, and then I'm spirited away like some kind of asset by a princess and her paramour. They took me out to sea. Geez, you know that I almost rusted due to the salt in the sea? Also I found out that I get very sea sick. And it's only now that my master and I have reappeared and she does not let me watch television am I appearing like this and complaining."  
"…Hm. Do you love your owner that much? For example, enough to kill that person?"  
"Umm… Kiri-chan?"  
"I meant hate of course. Do you hate your owner that much, what do you think I said? I wouldn't say anything else."  
"Well first of all, you're scary, and that's ridiculous. First of all, that person's already dead!"

"Is that right now? Then aren't you free now that she's dead, unless you're the 'familiar,' for another ghost which seems preposterous."  
"What do you mean?"  
"Well don't you want to get rid of your master? You said you owner was witch, and a devil, and she sounds like a serial killer."

"That's true, she's doing horrible things to the people in this town.  
But… I have to say it don't I? She has reason as to why she's so desperate. So I could stand it if I was allowed to watch-"  
"Wow, you're pretty defensive of your owner. Even if you ran away."

"…That's true, but how should I say it… I think that person has changed a little bit because of him. That maybe for the first time she's doing something out of her own will, even if her whole life has been…"  
Coin-kun mutters.

I guess I was quite stupid there.  
Even if I don't worry about him, his life already has balance.

"Hey, Coin-kun."

"Yes. What is it Kiri-chan."  
"Aren't you saying that your master isn't actually that bad of a person? That just like a spoilt little boy you wanted her to notice you. Heh, she's like a mother figure to you isn't she?"

"…That's not it…! I hate this Nee-san! I hate that Master. And this time I was really running so I could become a real woolen cap for a magical girl out there! And then we could have adventures and I would find out what Ren does with all that Kombu seaweed."  
Shaking his head, he somehow finds the remote and starts watching television, completely zoning out.  
…Hah. Well, I have this feeling that this problem would solve itself sooner than I expected.

* * *

4/

It ended as abruptly as an urgently shipped express package.

"Huh?"  
The doorbell rings.  
It's almost quarter to eight in the morning. I couldn't have ignored it because if I did it would mean that I had overslept and would be late to school… again.

"Yes-, who is it-?"  
I open the front door.  
Then there…

Is someone so beautiful and overbearing that I cannot feel that I pale in comparison.  
Truly, she might be wearing the clothes of an ordinary housewife but any person could tell that she's a beauty beyond imagination.  
A model perhaps?

"This is the Kirishima house, right?"  
"Hah, that's right, what is it?"  
"Well it turns out that I think you have something of mine, it's called-"  
"…Golden… Fleas?"  
Even with my level of English I don't quite understand.  
I couldn't understand, but for some reason, I understood this beauty was talking about that.

Would this mean this absolutely ordinary housewife who happens to look like she belongs on the cover of a magazine is his master?

"Yes?"  
"Ah, nothing. Just wait a second, I'll bring it down. If it doesn't want to, I'll do it forcibly with the leash we bought for that dog we never bought."  
"Oh you don't need to go through so much trouble Kirishima-san."  
"Oh no, I insist." I emphasizes.  
How could that ram ghost call his woman a witch?  
I close the door and run to my room.

Then,  
"Oi, goat ghost, there's someone here for you."  
I forcibly take the remote away from him.

…Then.  
There was a quivering ghost in my room.  
"Well, have you watched your fill?"  
"Damn, it's my witch of a master. Be careful she might cut you into seventeen pieces. We should really leave this place Kiri-chan! We can start a new life somewhere else, just you and me."

Coin-kun shakes.  
Ignoring his obvious slander of the nice woman outside, I take out the cardboard box with the golden wool from one of the shelves on my closet.

"Whoa! W, what are you doing Kiri-chan. That's worth a lot you know, you could sell it and live easily for the rest of your life."  
I ignore the struggling Coin-kun and start down the stairs.  
In the end, this was the cause of everything.  
The cardboard box that was outside Ryuudouji on that day I decided to take the other way home. Inside is a strange sheepskin that appears to be golden. It reminds me of the sheep skin that apparently summons a dragon when it's thrown onto the ground, the one we learnt about in history class.  
This must be Coin-kun's main body.

"Oh, there's some blood staining it. It must have been from that sharp leaf. I better get this off before giving it back."  
For some reason the blood comes off rather easily for wool. Actually it feels metallic like steel wool.  
"Ahah-!"  
Coin-kun screams.

…But now I can't see him or hear his voice.  
So that was the connection between him and me.  
Kouta must be pretty amazing to see him without being related to me.

"-Alright. Even if I found it, if there's an owner, I have to return it. Especially if she's a nice lady like that."  
I might have picked it up, but I was only holding onto it… that is until it would become my jumper.  
But after it ate my pumpkin slices, I thought it more like rental.  
While I was renting it, well, at least it wasn't boring.

"Thank you very much. Finally, Soichirou-sama will think of me as a woman of means, not that he needs to…"  
"Huh? You're getting married? Well, congratulations."  
Her eyes seem to be sparkling.  
"Black twin braids, glasses as well as that creamy skin, my, you are simply another level of cute."  
Okay, now she's just getting creepy.  
Well, she's getting married so I guess I should refer to her as,  
"Ummm, Miss, do you mind tell me your address, it seems my brother has grown quite an attachment with that and might want to go over to play with it… so is it okay if you tell me your address?"  
"Ohhhhh, Miss, how long as it been since I've been called that. What a good girl as well. Of course, I am currently residing in Ryuudouji. He can come any time he wants to, just not after dark. There have been rumors of an unhospitable man who think he's a samurai guarding the gates."  
She gifts me a smile and walks off towards the shopping district, probably to buy ingredients for dinner or something like that.  
She's such an earnest housewife.

…The beauty gets further and further away.  
It seems like she's having an argument with the cardboard box.  
Like that.

I don't know why, but I think Coin-kun looked at me as if saying goodbye.

"-Ah, will he be fine? I guess Kouta can go to his house sometimes… where did she live again…"  
Wait…  
Didn't she say Ryuudouji?  
But that's where Ryuudou-Senpai lives isn't it?  
So was that his mother?  
Nah, she said that she was getting married so… his sister?  
But they don't look anything like each other. I don't think she's even Japanese.  
So who else lives in Ryuudouji?  
Well, I've heard rumors that…  
… No way.  
I don't accept it.  
I won't accept it one bit.  
I thought that he would get married to some Yakuza woman, not someone like her.

"It doesn't really matter."  
I have to get ready for school anyway.  
"Hmm, you know if everything in life goes this easil-"  
I stop for a moment…  
Who was I talking to? Have I grown so accustomed to his presence that I've always assumed he was there to listen to me?  
I shake my head because it's annoying before continuing.  
"Hmmm, you know if everything in life goes this easily, I guess there's no harm in giving the Vice-Chairman position a go."

I nod to myself slightly as I re-enter the house.  
"I guess it's fate,"  
I mutter to myself.  
…That's not right.  
I'm surprised at my own stupidity. Maybe his rubbed off on me.  
To give a counter example, the time has not come for it to stay night…  
-yet.

* * *

Premise: What idea is this based off?  
Actually it would be based off three things.  
A Fate version of Nanako-chan SOS.  
How Kirishima became Vice-Chairman of the school.  
Why Argon Coin loves television so much.

Notes: What does it mean to write something like this? There isn't much to say if you've already read Nanako-chan SOS. However, is this fic really as bad as all those "summon X hero instead of Y hero,"fics?  
I started on my TYPE-MOON journey at the end of 2009, I consider myself one of the "post fate anime, pre-fate zero anime," era of fans; however, I did not understand the exact appeal the TYPE-MOON works until I read a guide on reading Pride and Prejudice, namely "Flirting with Pride and Prejudice," by some woman, who I cannot be bothered to look up.  
One essay by a woman called Elizabeth Fairchild (yes Gil, it's probably Noah's mother) wrote about what keeps Pride and Prejudice "fresh," to today's audience, and she reduced it to, 'love and onions.'  
Love sure, but the onions part is definitely more interesting. She described Pride and Prejudice as a layered novel, one not driven by character or plot by rather on theme.  
In essence, most of the Type-Moon Works via the same franchise run on the same central plotline, all the incarnations of Melty Blood for instance are about TATARI, even when they're not about TATARI, or Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Extra, Fate/Zero, are all generally about a Holy Grail War, and to even stretch it further, one could compare the central plot matters of DDD and Kara no Kyoukai, and find some similarities. Of course, most of this is because there is only one author.  
The second type of novel Fairchild discusses is the Character Driven Story, say, Sherlock Holmes. Most Visual Novels follow such a path with the love interest running the story, one could say, internally, Tsukihime is one of such works; however what drives TYPEMOON as a whole is not character. There is no central character, unless you want to label Gaia as a character, or maybe Aoko.  
So in the end TYPEMOON is an onion gun, it shoots out stories that are more based on theme more than anything. Compare the works of Tsuki no Sango and Fate Extra, both set in a world of stagnation. The similar motivations of Araya Souren and Dust of Orisis, the coma ridden Shiki in Garan no Dou compared to the comatose Shiki in Kagetsu Tohya, the persistence and pure evil of Angra Mainyu coupled with what the world has come to in Notes, the events of Alliance of the Illusionary Eyes and Mobius Strip.  
Try to look for these similarities yourself, there's quite a few of them.  
And we come down to Nanako-chan SOS. First Nasu wrote it as a way of explaining the relationship between Arihiko and Shiki, about two people who are broken, and how there are different levels of broken. The whole Nanako fiasco is just a framing device to explain something as simple as that. Of course we learn more about Nanako and what a guardian spirit actually is, but at the core, it's the origin store of the relationship of two people.  
Being the horrible copier he is, Nasu actually used this in Hollow Ataraxia to explain how Shinji and Shirou first met, albeit that was a much shorter interaction that Nanako-chan SOS. While thinking about ideas I obviously came up the idea of Issei meeting Shirou, but that's lame, thereon came my decision to use an obscure character who has no CG and that I mistook for a member of the Kishima family.  
Coin-kun Mayday! Is then something I would like others to think of as the Bridget Jones to Pride and Prejudice, well obviously not as good as Bridget Jones but it shares the same message.  
It's about Kiri-chan, whose first name I did not want to make up, if you were to ask me to make up one right now on the spot it'd be Izanami, since that's a very royal name that most Japanese parents would think for a bit before giving their children, right? Either way, it's a story of how Kiri-chan became Vice-Chairman of Homurahara, and how Argon Coin was never used again in the duration of the Grail War.  
If you want a time frame, this occurs one or two weeks before Arturia's summoning, and I hate the fact that Waku Waku Splash Land wasn't open till July which is the very reason for Pool Day, something that doesn't make sense at all, and is intended as parody of Waku Waku Splash Land.  
However, there is one that thing I cannot come close Nanako-chan SOS to, and that would be the placement. Nanako-chan SOS was not a story to be read on its own, that's why it was part of the 'Ten Nights of Dreaming,' and when you think about it, you get another onion. Both of them are about familiars and the protagonist's interaction with said familiar; just one is a loop and the other is… hijinks. Either way it's a parallel, I guess, furthering the purpose of separating Arihiko and Shiki, and as Arihiko's put it "_The difference between us is extremely small. It's such a little amount, like two hands on a clock off by just an hour. There's no need to even acknowledge such a small difference_." Putting Nanako's story into Ren's story was to make the reader realize that such a difference exists, and my story can never do that as it stands alone.  
In conclusion, this is the story of four people, four selves, and four distortions, the girl who only cares about herself, the selfish boy who is selfless so he can be selfish, the selfless boy who doesn't know what self is, and the ghost who was never allowed to think about himself. This is the story of their interactions with each other.  
With that said, I hope you had fun reading this as much as I did writing and bragging about it.


	2. References

References:

-Zouken made a sandwich and you died.  
That's right, a worm sandwich.  
(Parody of Kagetsu Tohya: Lunacy Daily Message)

Saegusa-san  
(Minor Character of Fate)

fried chicken  
(Day 2-One day II, Everyday (II), F/SN)

it's just that no one's ever told me that they want me to be Vice-Chairman of anything; I'm not Vice-Chairman material in the first place.  
(October 08 2005- The Student Council Chairman is still Going Strong, F/HA)

I don't even have a CG, not even one that was never used like Goto-kun.  
(Even more minor character of Fate)

Chaotic Professor  
(NrvnqsrChaos)

or am I getting tragically killed off like the standard, plain girl, you know, the one that the Chaotic Professor ate.  
(Maiko Yamase, Heroine of Dawn)

monopoly money  
(Personal)

certain Senpai who believes in breaking up every fight possible and helping both parties.  
(October 09 2005- A Guest from Five Years Back, F/HA)

If what we said that day is truly recorded in oblivion, then it still is deep within my heart.  
(Oblivion Recorder, Fairy Tale, Kara no Kyoukai)

If you really want me to tell you, it takes a little less than an hour to get from the residential district to Shinto, the Business District.  
(Day 14-moonlight (I), Fate, F/SN)

I always pass through the shops while going home and buy some taiyakai.  
(October 09 2005- Loitering on the Way, Main road, F/HA)

more western houses south of Miyama  
(Prologue-Day 2, F/SN)

been an outbreak of gas leaks in the town  
(Day2-One day II, Everyday (II) F/SN)

For some odd reason on the right hand is a bruise.  
(Day2-One Day II, Signs, Heaven's Feel, F/SN)

bonne appetite  
(Intentional Flench)

The goat… wait… goats eat pumpkins  
(Goats eat pumpkins, google it.)

stupid Phantas-Moon  
(Phantas-Moon, Magical Girl)

Matou Shinji and he's called one of the three disasters of Homurahara.  
(October 08 2005 Let's go for Lunch, F/HA)

"Magic Circuit, Full count~!"  
(Carnival Phantasm)

there aren't any wolves in Fuyuki, or anything shaped like a wolf in the first place.  
(Heaven's Feel Backnight 1, F/SN)

My former master ended up with his family massacred, died under the hull of his rotting ship. It was a nice ship.  
(The Death of Jason)

That a few days from now… oh I shouldn't mention it, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, but I will tell you you'll go more or less go splat."  
(Day 2-One Day II, Everyday (II), F/SN)

maybe a small town called Misaki. It might take the same time as getting from Tokyo and Kyoto  
(Fate/complete material III - World material pp. 140-146)

I heard they have some nice soba stands there.  
(Day 3, Alliance of the Illusionary Eyes)

I want to be called Magical Amber  
(Magical Amber, Magical Girl)

It's hard for me to say, but Kuzuki-sensei even scares me. His way of breathing and walking is too perfect, a level that this guy is nowhere near, and one that surpasses my own.  
(Day 4-One Day III, Breathing, Unlimited Blade Words, F/SN)

The first was the man in the white coat that went up to my father to complain about how a just awoken coma patient had just tried to blind herself.  
(Void Shrine, " ", Kara no Kyoukai)

more seats known as happiness than people.  
(Day 14-moonlight (I), Wish, Fate, F/SN)

'skip the temples because they're boring.'  
(Day 1 part 1, Prologue, F/SN)

I'll probably need to get a job in Fancy Store  
(Day 14-moonlight (I), Present, F/SN)

appeared in the 1-B classroom.  
(Day 5-New Life, Matou Sakura (III), Fate, F/SN)

mystic pass  
(Day 15-After image, Mind and Body, Unlimited Blade Works, F/SN)

we might be fighting very soon,  
(F/SN)

seventeen pieces  
(Day 2-Inversion Impulse II, Arcueid Route, Tsukihime)

serial killer has come to Fuyuki? I know there was a serial killer that stole children about ten years ago but  
(-222:24:48, The Untold Story of the Fourth Holy Grail War, F/Z)

Himuro-Senpai  
(Kane Himuro, main character of Fate/school life)

"Sometimes you can be horribly mean."  
(Heaven's Feel, F/SN)

reading the paper sometimes or doing shogi problems.  
(October 11 2005, Crosswords and Shogi Problems, F/HA)

Everything from water slides to artificial wave pools are housed under its domed roof. It always feels like summer  
(October 08 2005, On the way to Water Wonderland, F/HA)

that Kuzuki-Sensei is getting married.  
(Day 8-Mydear, straydead, Another person, Unlimited Blade Words, F/SN)

Well that being said, it's not like our school doesn't have a pool of its own.  
(October 08 2005, On the way to Water Wonderland, F/HA)

While happily munching his Obanyaki… now I think about it Ryuudou-Senpai seems to really like Obanyaki…  
(October 09 2005, Towards the Culture Festival, F/HA)

"So Emiya, a few of the heaters are broken."  
(Day 1-One day, Everyday (I), F/SN)

us first years happen to be in the fourth floor.  
(Day 5-New Life, Matou Sakura (III), Fate, F/SN)

But then the sense of "self," is something special that you can't put on a scale, in fact, it would only make sense to call it the scale itself, but that person's actions…  
(Day 13-VS berserker, Your distortion, Unlimited Blade Works, F/SN)

"Well, to me, all Japanese people look the same…"  
"Well I could say to same for all you foreigners."  
(Q: Why are Red Sabre and Blue Sabre so similar? Are they related?  
A: They are very different!  
They are different like Takeuchi Takashi and WADA Rco. Or like buckwheat noodles and udon.  
The model of King Arthur were said to be a fusion of two individuals, and one of them is the Roman general Artorius. I guess there are some relationships. (Translator Note: Sure, Nasu, sure. All Romans look the same.) Typemoon 10th Anniversary Q & A booklet)

Slaughter by the henchmen of the red haired demon Akiha, as she used you as bait for the great Phantasm Moon and wrapped you in her Origami Temple!  
(Carnival Phantasm)

Great Millennium Castle Brunestud  
(Ten Nights of Dreaming, Crimson Moon, Kagetsu Tohya)

this Saeki group annihilated the Kishima family, another half-blood family,  
(Ten Nights of Dreaming, Red Demon God, Kagetsu Tohya)

even my master could be easily crushed by a Primordial Demon.  
(May 2007 Comptiq,  
Q: Who's the top three strongest characters?  
A: Magical Amber, Neco Arc, and Tiger. Well, not really. Seriously, it's Arcueid, "Ryougi Shiki", and primordial demons.(Not counting Servants))

certain cup of heaven  
(F/SN)

It reminds me of the sheep skin that apparently summons a dragon when it's thrown onto the ground, the one we learnt about in history class.  
(Fate/Side Material)

unhospitable man who think he's a samurai guarding the gates  
(Day 6-Blade, Elegant Moonlight, Fate, F/SN)

the time has not come for it to stay night  
(three days until F/SN)


End file.
